Rolling With The Gods
by The Leader of Monkeys
Summary: The Jinchuuriki boy finds himself lost in an advanced city after his failed attempt to bring the lone Uchiha back to Konoha after he defected from said village. How will he cope in a place littered with beings on a higher plateau to the ones he saw on a regular basis? How'll the stubborn one rummage his way home? NO SHINIGAMI NARUTO! NO YAOI! Vegeta-like Ichigo
1. Cats Are to Be Loved!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Naruto. **

**There is little to no stories involving Naruto in Bleach while remaining TRUE to both series. That's where I come in. Naruto WON'T become a shinigami or have any form of any Bleach powers. He's the motherfucking Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, he doesn't need to be ripping-off Ichigo's race or powers. **

**Anyway, I hope to bring y'all a balanced story of Naruto and Bleach while remaining true to both series. **

**Enjoy. **

**And tell me if there's another story with Naruto not getting Bleach powers. I've found the best one written by Kenchi618 (True Warriors Never Die). Man that guy's great!**

**If there's a story where Naruto doesn't get shinigami powers, like Kenchi618's story, let me know.**

* * *

**Rolling With the Gods! **

**Chapter One **

**Cats Are To Be Loved!**

Five months felt like five years to the little bundle of joy now living in a highly advanced city. A city, such words felt foreign to the whiskered-faced boy. His own konoha-teammate really was a jerk for defecting from the village of Konohagakure no Sato all in search of power from the creepy snake-man Orochimaru.

How did the boy know it was Sasuke's fault for how things ended up the way they did?

He didn't know, but he'd be damned if he didn't pinpoint the blame onto the lone-wolf of the Uchiha-clan.

He felt it was his duty to bring him back home not just because he was tasked to by the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade-baachan, but also because he promised Sakura-chan he would from the very bottom of his heart. And the blond-ninja kid wasn't one to go back on the promises he made to others, especially to the girl he had been crushing on since he had first saw her in the academy.

Furthermore the kid with an unimaginable source of power sealed in his gut assured his pink haired crush that her black haired crush wouldn't ever rely on a creep like Orochimaru because he was a powerhouse all in his own right.

How wrong was he?

Not about the powerhouse-thing because Sasuke Uchiha was tough as nails, but about the reliance on the hickey-mark he seemingly received from said snake-man whom he was attempting to flee to at the time. The fox-boy never really got the details of how Sasuke had gotten his curse seal of heaven.

He was certainly shocked though, seeing the black-markings covering one half of Sasuke's body, giving his childhood friend a somewhat devilish aura around him as he ironically stood on the statue of Hashirama Senju, the Shodai Hokage while the fox-child stood atop of Madara Uchiha's statue, a traitorous shinobi whom fought against Hashirama Senju at the valley of the end where the boys fought to put an end to it all.

There was all that was divulged on Hashirama and Madara's battle at the valley of the end to the blond boy and Sasuke's knowledge.

If the fox-child thought Sasuke looked kind of devilish with the markings all over his body, then Sasuke transformed into the devil himself once he shifted the level of the curse mark from one to two, making two bat-like hands spout from his back and take up the form of two-wings. His usual pale complexion darkened, his teeth became canines, an X-mark was manifested around his nose-area, his finger-nails sharpened into claws, and his dark spiky hair brightened into light blue hair.

He looked truly evil.

The blond boy was speechless having never before witnessed such a transformation but was still optimistic and determined as ever to bring Sasuke back home.

That was where Sasuke belonged as a fellow member of Konoha's populace.

The fight had raged on all over the valley, and ended up where it had started, on the statues of Hashirama and Madara.

Only this time Naruto was standing atop of Hashirama's one with a red-cloak of chakra blazing around his body, his normally bright cerulean blue eyes were that of crimson red ones, his whisker-marks were thickened and resembled that of a tiger's whiskers, and his own finger-nails had become razor-sharpened fox-claws.

Both shinobis held their ultimate techniques in their hands and glared at each other with defiance. Streaks of red and purple were flowing through the air at the valley of the end to this very day the kid was sure as the boys leapfrogged at each other while roaring each other's names.

"_Naruto/Sasuke!"_

"_Chidori/Rasengan!"_

Simultaneous shouts of Rasengan and Chidori from Naruto and Sasuke was followed by the collision of their jutsus battling for dominance while the two were in the air. The magnitude of the teenagers' powers caused a spherical ball of black-purplish energy to shroud them and blow up, nuclear-bomb-style!

When Naruto woke up, he couldn't see Sasuke anywhere. In fact he could see neither the statues of the legendary shinobis of Madara and Hashirama anywhere either.

His face had astonishment painted all over it as he glanced at all the strange devices within an area he had never before heard of in his young life. Those big white-things with wings looked like a mechanical bird to Naruto, but passengers were boarding the 'bird'.

He tried to ask the people of this world where he was, but they all just gave him pitiful looks in return. They couldn't understand him despite looking somewhat like Naruto. At that moment dread was filling Naruto's heart as he frantically pulled his hair out with the folks glancing at him strangely.

But things soon looked up for Naruto once they got him someone that could speak his native tongue. She was a pretty 'Japanese' woman that Naruto thought was weird.

What was Japanese?

That was Naruto's thought.

He didn't know.

Still he was delighted when the lady got him some ramen, but understandably felt uncomfortable once she began asking him questions of where he came from and how he managed to wonder so far into the airport.

Naruto just gave the kind woman a shrug of his shoulders. He didn't have a clue. He told her that he was blindfolded upon arriving in the airport and the lady seemed to buy that to some extent.

Perhaps Naruto was raised in the jungle if he didn't even know what airplanes were.

After that Naruto was shipped off to Japan where he had spent the last five months living within a hostel and attending Karakura Middle School. His life had been okay, but that didn't mean he had given up hope of finding a way back to his own world. Naruto Uzumaki was not one to give up. One day, he would make his journey home.

…Because he made a promise to bring Sasuke back!

XxX

(Northern Japan – Karakura Town – Naruto)

The doors to the boy's five story hostel opened up, letting him come outside of it in a relaxed-manner while wearing an unzipped orange jacket that had the leaf symbol of Konoha embedded into the corner, something he had asked his care-worker to personally make him to show his (for) everlasting loyalty to Konoha.

Naruto still had the green gem necklace Tsunade-baachan had given him wrapped around his neck and a sack-bag on his shoulder.

A blue muscle t shirt was underneath Naruto's orange jacket that had a picture of Tom and Jerry printed on the front of it. It was something of a gift Naruto had received from one of the few friends he actually managed to make in this strange town. A pair of orange pants with two blue strips running down sides of it and a couple of his old blue sandals that miraculously survived his odd travel to this strange place completed Naruto's appearance.

Ah… So long orange jumpsuit.

Naruto would miss it truly, since it was tattered to pieces once he woke up to find himself in an American airport.

His blond hair was still as spiky as ever and both of his cheeks had three cat-like whisker marks on them.

"Ah! Another-day to try my luck of busting my way home! Ha-ha! I think I'm gonna get lucky this time too!" Naruto shouted with the sun-light penetrating his body, giving him a mesmerizing glow that came off as a golden aura instead.

Naruto began his walk toward the school he had enrolled into. He didn't have many friends at all. It seemed like no one could see the illusions Naruto was seeing from time to time. It would usually make him frown. Not only did he have to adjust to glancing at weird rectangle-sized devices with wheels at the bottom of them speeding past him on his saunter to school but he also had to adept to seeing ghosts!

Ghosts! That wasn't fair, because Naruto was terrified of ghosts. They could walk into his little room located in the hostel that he lived in and eat all of his instant ramen-cups! Not to mention the spook the supernatural beings could give him would be enough to cause him to get a heart attack and go into cardiac arrest!

The first time he had seen a ghost the blond had screamed and jolted down the street like someone had put a cap in his rear-end. He told the other kids at school what he had seen and nearly all of them just mocked and laughed at him, telling him that he needed to get his head sorted out, preferably by getting himself admitted into an asylum.

"…School here is just like the academy back in Konoha." Naruto sighed to himself, walking through an alleyway, and taking notice to the doors leading to the backyards of the inhabitations' houses. That was very interesting structure if one asked Naruto.

Back in Konoha one couldn't just walk out of their backyards and into the open world without jumping high up in the sky, but here most could casually saunter out of their gardens and onto the streets.

The blond kept looking around in a somewhat expectant manner.

"Meow."

"Ah. I knew you'd be here. How are ya doin' buddy?" Naruto smiled at the distinctive black golden eyed cat waving its paw at him in a friendly manner. As if cats could do that. Seriously, But it wasn't the first time Naruto had come across that little fur ball of mysteriousness.

Usually if one stumbled upon a black cat more than once it meant bad-luck had befallen them. So the old superstition said. Or it might have said something else. Honestly, Naruto had heard too much folklores to care what the meaning of them meant.

He felt this black cat gave him luck though, because when he had first met it two months ago after he arrived in Karakura Town a ramen-chief ran out of a nearby ramen-shop he had found when he first arrived in town but (he) didn't nearly have enough money to purchase his favourite treat and offered him a free bowl of delicious ramen of his choosing!

When he asked the man why he was doing this, the old man replied that a cute woman had come in and given him the money that covered Naruto's bowl of ramen.

Can someone say jackpot?! Finally, was the thought of Naruto. Someone nice enough had seen how roughed up his life was and offered him a helping hand in his time of need. And it was all because of that black cat.

Ironic really when one thought about it.

Naruto hated cats. To him, they were the devil's minions. It was such a bane of Naruto's when he along with Sakura and Sasuke had to chase that brown fur ball of stress and annoyance around the village when that fat-lady requested the hokage to find her missing cat. The old hag was just lucky that she was married to the Fire Daimyo (Fire Feudal Lord), otherwise the Hokage wouldn't assign any Konoha genin team to give chase to that damned cat.

But it's digressed now.

The busy woman whom paid for Naruto's ramen didn't even have the time to get Naruto's thanks as the old man had informed him she was in quite the rush.

He did try to make her stop, but once he turned around the woman seemed to vanish as if she wasn't even there in the first place. Strange, but Naruto had experienced weirder, like getting thrown in another world for instance.

"I dunno how you keep finding me." Naruto grinned, channelling his chakra to his feet and strolling up the wall to sit by the cat. He abruptly giggled as he patted the cat that purred as if it were approving of his use to come to it. His childlike-innocence adored every minute of seeing the cat's odd look the first time Naruto performed the tree-walking jutsu.

"If ya like that then you'll love my water-walking technique granny cat!" Naruto bragged, missing the hum that came from the cat and as well as the twitching eyebrow from it.

It was a young good looking cat! Not an old wrinkly one damn it!

"Man I'm like a messiah or something in this rectangle-shaped-boxes-speeding world!" Naruto continued to power up his haughtiness, all the while the cat kept on nodding as if it were really processing all of the info Naruto fed it.

Naruto gave the cat one last stroke which earned him a purr and a massage to his shoulder as the happy cat rubbed its head against his arm, "Man! Sometimes I believe you gotta mind of your own buddy," Naruto grinned, hopping off of the wall before getting the chance to see the smirk that crossed the cat's face.

Naruto waved at the fur-ball animal, "Bye, bye wise kitty cat!" After Naruto had sprinted off, the cat let out a laugh as it kept a firm eye and a lock on Naruto's position as if it were assigned to guard over the boy.

'You have no idea shrimp.' A thought of playfulness oddly was processed through the cat's head as it turned its head and glanced at a slowly moving shadow heading its way, revealing a silhouette that made the cat inwardly sigh in relief that Naruto had left before he had gotten to see it.

"Well I ought to get to work then. I don't want goldie locks with the whiskers on his face getting maimed now, do I?" The cryptic cat contemplated in a jesting manner as a blinding azure glow overtook its body, the silhouette and the cat vanishing within a second or a half as the glow that'd obscured the area died down.

XxX

(With Naruto)

"So long kid." A man at an ice cream stand waved goodbye to the fox-child as he rode away on foot with a pink treat in his hand with sprinkles, red sauce, and a chocolate flake on the side to complete it.

"It's like that cat's got the lucky number seven engraved into its body, or something. Every time I see it fortune seems to fall into my lap," Naruto said joyously, licking on a strawberry flavoured ice cream cone after finding some money five minutes after leaving the cat. A lord must've been fond of him.

As Naruto strode on the streets of Karakura Town with the vehicles he had come to know as cars speeding past him every so often, his eyes wondered around the tall buildings of the city. The first time he had seen them back in America where he had come from after getting blasted here, he was in awe at the overly massive rocks built to fit people in and to use it for leisured purposes, like homes, or for business ones like school.

He had never seen buildings so big. The ones in Konoha were smaller, yet more colourful than these ones. For the most part the ones he bared witness to nowadays had bland colours such as grey, like his school for instance.

Naruto frowned. His school-building should've been painted orange. That was a badass colour if one asked Naruto Uzumaki!

He did find himself happily fascinated with the speedy vehicles of this world. He could remember when he was travelling toward his hostel with his care-worker in a cab, hands planting on the window with his eyes scanning the elegance of Karakura Town in all his innocence.

It was night time the day he stepped foot onto his temporally home. The dazzling lights shrouding the city that night in its radiance mesmerized the lost boy all the more and amused the cab-driver and the nice lady that was his care-worker, as she worked in the hostel that was designed for orphaned youths, low-priced teenagers, delinquents, and recently released criminals.

They had a little laugh that night when Naruto asked could he drive the cab, and his care-worker told him when he was older he could take his driving test and become a driver.

Naruto pouted.

But at least it was something to look forward to, depending how long it took him to hunt for a way home.

Maybe life here weren't such a bad thing?

"Hey, American-boy?" But then again, it had its negative points. Particularly the gang of delinquent boys wearing the uniform of Karakura High School all standing before him with smirks on their faces, their shirts unbuttoned and not properly tucked in to let the world know they were indeed hoodlums.

"What's an American doing here in Japan anyway? What, come here ghost-busting?" The older boy mocked him, making a scowl appear on Naruto's face that got the accuser and his friends to laugh loudly at the blond's misfortune.

He beat up many kids in school for the sole reason that they ridiculed him for seeing ghosts like the children back in Konohagakure no Sato did due to the encouragement of their parents. Only this time he was strong enough to do something about it. Or it could be divulged to the fact that no kid in school used chakra or were super-powered in any way.

So they got humiliated by the strong ninja.

But some humans had siblings or other relatives they could call upon if a kid utterly outclassed and mopped the playground with them all!

And that was how Naruto found himself a new job, sweeping the pavements with older kids heading on a one way ticket to jail once they become of age, or hell if they were lucky, since jail could be considered an even worse torture period than living an eternality in the flames of the underworld!

Probably because some thought dying was easier than having to deal with the stress of life.

The suicide was blessed for some.

"Awww. Is the wannabe ninja gonna cry now?" Another older boy teased at the deadpanned Naruto.

"Gah, same old, same old, the daily routine never ends. I ought to get myself one of those uniforms the trash-men wear, since I seem to be finding myself taking out the garbage a lot." Naruto sighed, "Guess I'm just an up-standing citizen, right lads-? I mean rubbish." The kids snarled at Naruto, getting him to grin innocently as he threw his cream cone at one of them and watched feverishly as it connected with his face resoundingly, knocking him to the ground with a loud thud.

The others just stared on with open mouths and wide eyes to depict their shocks at seeing one of the members of their crew of twenty fifteen year old teenagers bulldozed to the ground by a mere cream cone. They already thought Naruto was a weirdo due to the fact that he called himself a badass ninja and had those marks that resembled a cat's whiskers on his face.

This just solidified their belief that Naruto was anything but normal.

And thus he must be bullied.

"Let's fuck him up!" They raged simultaneously, making the noise of an elephant stampede echo through the tunnel Naruto had walked under to get to school.

A blur shot upward from Naruto's position, his school-bag no longer on his shoulder.

Naruto cracked his knuckles, an eager grin engraving itself onto his face at the prospect of taking the trash to the dump yard, "Hey, maybe this job's not so bad." And maybe it was, since Naruto found that he over did it on the 'clean-up' part, which would often leave him running late for school.

Oh who cared!

He hated that place of education anyway.

Naruto bent down on his knee the moment the raging boys huddled around him and immediately began laying into him with wild kicks and punches with absolutely no style or flow to their blows whatsoever. Once the blond-boy rose up, left fist clenched and frozen upward as if he was saluting his surrogate grandmother, the hokage, the culprits were all blown upward while screaming in pain.

Naruto gracefully landed on his feet with his eyes closed and a goofy grin on his features. Damn it felt so cool to be the strongest kid around the block. It beat being knocked around like he used to be back when he lived in Konoha. Or still did since he _was _going to find a way home. And one could count on that.

…Dattebayo!

BOOM!

The usual detention group Naruto had given a one way ride to the sky had fallen onto the floor with hard crashes for all. The casual moan and twitches of the limbs were seen while some even cried 'I want my mommy/momma.'

"And that's the end of that chapter," Naruto dusted his hands off with a wide grin on his whisker-marked face. "Let that teach ya a lesson… that I'm not sure what it is yet." Naruto cupped his chin with a pensive look washing over his chubby (baby fat) face. He would've kept thinking what that lesson he taught the rude-boys was if he hadn't realized he had to be in class in the next five minutes.

A combination of waking up (on purpose), and stuffing his face full of instant ramen cups left him short of time to get to school.

"Wah! I gotta get myself to school! Ya know what, just don't bother me again, dattebayo!" Naruto concluded with a huff, making the downed boys moan excruciatingly. That was the lesson he was attempting to divulge from his mind anyway. How could they lose to such a simple-minded kid?

As if the gods were painting Naruto's undeveloped mind a thud landed onto his head that felt like a brick of sorts, as it immediately put him on guard. Flashing a kunai out of his hidden compartment within his new orange jacket, Naruto frantically shifted his head from side to side with a pout of annoyance on his face.

"Who's there?" Naruto asked demandingly, slowly lowering his guard once no one was brave enough to speak up, and question his sanity, "Whoever that was, just knock it off, okay?" Naruto put the kunai back into his jacket and bent down to lift his sack bag up after it landed onto his head and onto the ground.

The blond boy skipped off to school while humming happily, completely forgetting the fact that he had to be in class within the next five minutes.

XxX

(Karakura Middle School)

The quiet atmosphere of a classroom full of young kids ranging from age eleven to twelve year olds sitting by four rows of twenty desks was broken by the noise of a thunderous thump. All heads rotated themselves almost instinctually while the brown haired teacher sighed exasperatedly, as she was in the middle of calling out the names on the register she held in her hands.

One little girl smiled at the sight of the mini rascal while the other kids regarded him with indifference.

"Yay, Medachitagariya de Igaisei Nanbā Wan no Dotabata Ninja (The Show-Off, Number One Unpredictable, Noisy Ninja) Naruto Uzumaki is in da house!" The responses he got were a slight giggle from the aforementioned smiling girl while another one merely rolled her eyes at him and his childish behaviour. Their fellow classmates just stared at him strangely, "I'm right on the money, right obaa-san?"

The kids winced at the audacity of Naruto to call their teacher an old lady, even the two girls that had nothing against him let out a slight wince.

The bespectacled woman's eyes narrowed at Naruto before she whipped off her glasses and unfurled her long brown hair that was done up in a single bun with chopsticks in it. Her coffee brown hair flowed down to her upper back and emphasized her elegance. A radiant glow was around her tanned-skin and her attire consisted of a medium red blouse top, a long brown skirt falling to her ankles, black leggings, and black-high heels on her feet.

Her breasts were a modest size of CC-cup.

"Do I look _old _to you boy?" There was a hint of warning in her imprudent words.

"But you are ol-." Naruto attempted to defend himself, but a sharp glare from the no-tolerance woman silenced him with a gulp, "Hehe. Sorry, Tukiyo-sensei," Naruto apologised, rubbing the back of his head in a sheepish manner.

"Apology accepted. Now go sit down." The now identified Tukiyo-sensei commanded, picking up her chopsticks she used as hairpins to retied her hair back into its usual bun. Naruto nodded, moving toward his seat with a white tail trailing behind him. The source of it was stuffed into Naruto's blue sandal. Tukiyo wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for the fact Naruto didn't have his usual holder for his belongings with him on his shoulder.

"Naruto…"

Naruto stopped.

"Yeah Tukiyo-sensei?"

"Where's your school bag?"

"It's right on my shou-." Naruto started to confidently tell her it was right on his shoulder, only to stop when he realized it weren't there, "Aw man! I must've left it in the bathroom again!" Naruto panicked, spinning around to sprint into the bathroom before tripping over the toilet paper sticking out of his sandal.

"Who put this in there?" Naruto demanded, making the majority of the class laugh at the class-clown while the two girls and Tukiyo-sensei just sighed. Naruto was so clumsy, and forgettable it was untrue.

After Naruto had retrieved his bag from the bathroom, he strode into the classroom while taking in a breath of relief. Tukiyo gave him a chiding look that said 'Are you done with your antics, young Uzumaki-san'. This'd Naruto grinning bashfully before he jogged on over to his desk.

Naruto tucked himself into his desk like a good little boy and breathed in and out in something of a leisured manner. A curious expression found its way to Naruto's face once he felt a tug on his sleeve, making him look over to the side to see the girl that had giggled innocently when he first showed up in class and made a clown out of himself.

It was just like he always did.

"Are you okay, Naru-kun? You're not hurt are you after that fall?" The girl fretted over Naruto. Her short brown hair that reached just past her shoulders was so light it could be considered dark blonde. A bang of her hair covered the right side of her pretty face with a strawberry-style hairclip on the left side of her face just above her ear. Her brown eyes filled with innocence crinkled with a bit of concern for Naruto's wellbeing.

She wore a green hooded dress that reached past her knees with a big yellow button on it and a pair of shoes was on her feet. She had a black handbag which she used as a makeshift schoolbag.

"Of course I am Yuzu-chan! Notta rubbish too stinky to be left around is gonna keep me stalled for long! Haha!" Naruto declared boisterously, grinning like a loon. His dearest friend to date frowned at his words. In short she'd known him since he first enrolled in school. She took pity on him when the other kids ridiculed him during and after the days of his declaration that he could see dead people.

Naruto was to be eternally known as Ghost-boy, given to him for his insane antics three months ago.

Naruto did cheer up instantaneously when Yuzu told him that she and her family could see spirits and Karin confirmed that fact also. Well in Yuzu's case she could only just barely see ghosts, but see them nonetheless. Yuzu wholeheartedly informed Naruto of her decision to divulge her weirdly foresight to witness the spirits of the otherworld slightly to their classmates, and Karin stood by her sister, and was also more willing to attempt to clear up Naruto's 'insanity'. But the boy was stubborn, telling the twins that he didn't want them to be shunned among their peels like he was.

His sense of honour was quite high even if he did have himself a little cry once he thought the girls weren't looking.

When did he become so noble huh?

He missed the slight tinge of pink that shrouded Yuzu's face as the girl really liked how noble he was, especially considering the fact that she had neglected to realize the consequences of letting their classmates know that she could see ghosts in blurry fashion.

Yuzu had friends. She certainly wouldn't want to lose them.

Although she did suppressed the urge to sigh 'oh Naru-kun' since his loud shout brought the kids' attentions onto them and the chiding stare of Tukiyo-sensei as the brunette kept her hands firmly on her hour-glass figure.

"Keep it until after class you two." Tukiyo sternly commanded.

"Sorry, couldn't help myself, ya know," Naruto chuckled slightly, finding it relaxing to massage the back of his head that got Tukiyo to sigh, Yuzu to smile, and Karin to smirk.

Does the cat-faced boy ever feel down?

XxX

(Some ways away from Karakura Middle School)

"MWHAHAHAHA!" A gorgeous girl feigned a maniacal laugh in cheery fashion with her arms crossed over her chest in an X-shape. Her long orange burnt hair fell to her upper back with two blue hairpins on either side of her face. She wore a white dress shirt with a red ribbon bowtie around her neck. A grey short skirt fell to her knees with white socks stretching up to her knees, and a pair of brown shoes completed her appearance.

Her hips were curvaceous, very womanly for a girl of only fifteen years of age. And her breasts were FF-cup, publicity was blessed for some. In all her elegance the girl opened up her dark eyes to reveal the happiness just over-flooding them to depict her chirpiness to the world.

It didn't fade upon seeing the somewhat disturbed look of her fellow orange haired classmate a bit.

"C'mon Ichigo, don't you know what this is!" The orange haired beauty laughed in mocked malice. For a highly intelligent girl whom scored the second highest on the school exams, she could sometimes be a bit of a ditz.

"Uhh. Spirit Hunter," The orange spiky haired boy guessed, straightening up and tucking his hands into his pockets. He was a tall boy with a very well built body, not too muscular but not too skinny either. A pair of blue headphones were around his neck while he wore a white dress shirt tucked into his grey school trousers, only he didn't have on the school bowtie and opted to leave the first three buttons of his shirt undone. A couple of black shoes were on his feet and a bag was over his shoulder, looking like the ones where some people carried their laptops in.

The girl clapped her hands together, "Yeah! Isn't that show just the bested show ever?" Her arms went gracefully up in the air, "C'mon then Ichigo, join in with me." She proceeded to chant the annual laugh of the show before finding her arms ensnared by two equally feminine hands, but still had quite a solid grip on her.

"Hey!"

The young girl looked to her left at the sound of her best friend's voice to see her black spiky hair and onyx coloured eyes staring at her. She wore the same uniform as Orihime with the only difference being in the girls' breast size. Publicity wasn't blessed to all now. The black haired girl's ones wasn't nearly as big as orange haired beauty's ones, and her body wasn't nearly as shaped in an elegant manner as the orange haired girl's, but she was cute and pretty in her all own fearsome glory.

"Oh, hey, Tatsuki-chan, what's up?" The orange haired girl asked gently.

"Come on Orihime, move it." The now identified Tatsuki ordered to the now known Orihime as she began easing her best friend in the direction of their seats, "You can 'mwhahahaha' with me." Orihime visibly winced as she wanted to do that with Ichigo.

Ichigo Kurosaki watched them go off with a strange look on his face. He was slightly thankful to his long time childhood friend Tatsuki Arisawa was removing Orihime from his presence even if he didn't outright admit it. Orihime was okay, though Orihime and Ichigo weren't that close but occasionally seen each other around town from time to time since Tatsuki was good friends with both of them, but a long-time friend of Ichigo's.

They used to attend karate together. Tatsuki fondly reminisced the days where she used to lay Ichigo down for the count and the orange haired boy would cry his eyes out until his beautiful mother would come to pick him up, making him stop bawling just at the graceful appearance of her.

Ichigo used to be a goofy, happy boy back then… six years ago.

But ever since _that _day, the boy was happy no more… He was a shell of his former self. Nowadays whenever Tatsuki would see Ichigo, he'd always appear nonchalant as if he was never going to die and had fully accepted the fact that all of his family members would die before him with him living for an eternity.

A few random bursts of anger would occasionally come from Ichigo to let Tatsuki know he was still human to an extent in the form of a cranky expression on his face.

"Yo Ichigo," Ichigo turned an uninterested eye onto the one that had called him to see three of his school friends. They all had their arms crossed over their chests while two of them did the annual malevolent laugh in cheery fashion. The tallest one's face was frozen on impassive mode, "Keigo here."

"And Mizuiro."

The tallest one merely hummed.

Ichigo sighed with a twitching eyebrow at the three of them. The one in the middle was so tall that even Ichigo, (who wasn't short by any means), came just past his shoulder. His skin was dark tanned and very masculine, making him look like a twenty five year old man instead of the fifteen year old boy that he was. He had a gold chain wrapped around his neck given to him by his grandpa whom convinced him that he shouldn't use his fists for fighting but to protect the ones closest to him. His white dress shirt was also unbuttoned like Ichigo's, and tucked into his grey pants with a pair of black shoes finishing off his appearance.

The hulking boy was Yasutora Sado, but he was given the nickname 'Chad' by his good friend Ichigo.

Chad was born in Japan but taken to Mexico by his parents at a young age. After their deaths, Chad was adopted by Oscar Joaquín de la Rosa, a man believed to be Chad's grandfather since Chad referred to him as grandpa but in Mexican. Oscar's attempts to turn the once violent youth into a somewhat decent boy were futile until a certain day.

The kids Chad beat up out of anger because they miffed him in some way told their fathers and they came looking for Chad to punish the boy for knocking out their children. Oscar came between the fathers and Chad and took the beating for his grandson. That was the stroke of inspirational for Chad to change his ways and become a decent person.

The chain around Chad's neck was a memento given to him by his now deceased grandpa.

After Oscar's death, Chad moved back to Japan and enrolled into Karakura High School.

He met Ichigo once he found the boy being attacked by thugs. He stoically took their punches and they fled out of fear. The same thugs came back for Chad and managed to subdue him by smashing a brick into his head. They dragged Chad underneath a bridge before tying him to a chair.

Luckily for Chad, Ichigo showed up and battered the thugs after they had taken Chad's medallion. Ichigo handed the medallion back to Chad and told him that they should stick together and have each other's backs. Chad agreed and ever since then the two had the closest thing to a best friend in one another.

A brother-in-arms sort of thing, sometimes people had to stick together.

The hyperactive boy with brown hair and dark eyes wearing the school uniform except he had a tie around his neck and his shirt not tucked into his trousers along with the black haired boy with green eyes and black hair with a strand of his hair falling between his eyes also wearing the school uniform like his dear friend Keigo, Mizuiro, met Chad and Ichigo when the powerful tall lads protected them from a couple of bullies.

"I'm not going." Ichigo deadpanned.

"What? Whaddya mean you're not going?" Keigo gasped exaggeratingly, "It's the best TV show in Japan dude. And it's gonna be broadcasted right here in Karakura Town! You gotta go! You'd have to be dead to miss it dude!"

"Guess that makes me a living zombie then." The smart-mouthed orange haired man groused crudely, "Now get lost." He made the shooing motion to Keigo.

Keigo recoiled with fake tears in his eyes, "But I already went to the trouble of asking Rukia to go." He squeaked, pointing to the petite black haired girl holding the edges of her short skirt in a pleasant manner, causing Ichigo to sweat drop at her feigned mannerisms.

"Hi Ichigo," Rukia greeted brightly, no one but Ichigo knew she was a woman centuries of years old. Her black hair fell to her shoulders with a strand of her hair hanging between her eyes and her purple tinged orbs danced with pleasant mirth at the boy whom she surrendered her powers to so he could rescue his family. She played the part of innocent school girl well wearing the Karakura High School uniform for girls and all.

Keigo strode over to Rukia with his arms shaped over his chest in an X-shape, "You know you wanna do it Rukia. 'Mwhahahahaha'."

"No." Rukia replied as if she were a princess, placing her hand on her cheek and feigning a blush on her cheeks, "I'll be too embarrassed to do it."

"Come on Rukia. It's not hard. I'll show you!" Keigo insisted and proceeded to laugh loudly while Rukia swayed her hips from side to side as she cutely shook her head.

Ichigo watched with a deep scowl of annoyance and a twitching eyebrow on his features, 'Geez. She's become quite the little actress.' She had the whole class thinking she was this innocent transfer student when in reality she was a shinigami who came from a place rich of spirits and gods known as the Soul Society.

Ichigo knew this well since the woman snuck into his home around four months ago looking for a hollow. He booted her in the rear-end thinking that she was a burglar. She was surprised that he could see her, and Ichigo thought that she was crazy until his father ran into the room and told him to be quiet.

Ichigo hammered his father into his stomach and shouted right back at him that he should be quiet. Isshin only gave his son a blank stare in return when Ichigo pointed at Rukia. He couldn't see her. Ichigo was shocked at that and Rukia went on to explain that normal humans couldn't see spirits, but humans with high amounts of reiryoku could, like Ichigo for instance.

She briefed him on her duties as a shinigami with her horrendous drawings. They were so terrible they looked more like bunny rabbits rather than scary monsters known as hollows that had white masks on their faces and went around stalking the streets of the world of the living looking for snacks (humans) to fill the holes in their chests where their hearts used to be.

Their inconvenient get together was cut short when they heard a primal roar followed by the sounds of a bulldozer crashing into someone's house and a bloodcurdling scream. It didn't take long before Ichigo's sister, Yuzu, tremblingly walked into his room and informed him that something had Karin and how he must run to safety.

Ichigo wasn't going to do that and didn't.

Not when his family was in danger.

After overpowering Rukia's kido spell, leaving the small lady in shock how a human could bust out of her spell like it was nothing; Ichigo grabbed a baseball bat and heroically charged downstairs like a man on a mission.

At first, he was furious when he noticed the huge hole in his home, but then he was overcome by fear at the cause of it. It was sort of like looking at a mixture of a blackish ogre fused with a demon with a milky white mask covering its face with a hole in its chest where its heart should've been.

Its eyes were like two black voids with two sun yellow colours within them.

Then that fear was crushed and replaced by sheer determination when he seen his sister Karin in the creature's hand. He ran in front of it and told it that it should eat him instead. The hollow greedily accepted the brave boy's offer and began to stalk Ichigo, ready to devour him.

Rukia rushed in front of Ichigo and blocked the hollow's attempt to devour him, causing it to drop Karin to which Ichigo caught her in his arms. Rukia berated him on his reckless actions, telling him the hollow would not stop absorbing souls even if it absorbed Ichigo's one into his being.

But the time was telling off was not upon them with the hollow still hungry, and needing to feast on some souls.

Rukia was hurt and could not cleanse the hollow.

Faced with the possibility of death or becoming one with the devilish hollow, Ichigo chose death or the inevitability of transforming himself into a powerful Death God when he shoved Rukia's Zanpakuto through his gut. He defeated the hollow effortlessly after emerging from a blinding light as a new man, no, _warrior. _

He was an ascended samurai.

He thought that was a dream since the next day neither Yuzu, Karin nor his father could remember the events that led to the hole in their home. They thought that a truck crashed through the house and miraculously left them alive.

It wasn't until Ichigo made it to school that day that he discovered it wasn't a dream and in all actuality Rukia had surrendered her powers to him that night and now she must rely on him to do her job, giving her enough time to regain her powers so she could return to the Soul Society.

That was four months ago. Ichigo had learnt a lot of what it meant to be a shinigami and made some… perverted comrades. He discovered that hollows were in reality earth bound spirits that held some resentment to a certain place in the world of the living and couldn't pass on, resulting in either their chains disappearing or hollows coming to them to fest on their souls, the end result was the same.

They would become hollows.

That happened to Orihime's older brother, bless him. Ichigo only recently figured out that the orange haired girl crying in his family clinic 4 or 3 years ago was her. Her hollow-transformed brother came back for her because according to Rukia, Hollows will go for the ones they loved the most when they were alive in a bid to fill the emptiness within their hearts.

Ichigo rescued Orihime and her brother that night by watching Orihime's brother, Sora, cleanse his own soul after the orange haired man had freed him from his possessed state by cracking his mask. That was the first time Ichigo realized he was actually helping hollows by hacking through their masks like a hot knife through butter.

He felt a sense of pride swell up inside of his chest and a heavy amount of responsibility fall onto his shoulders.

This was something he had to do. He just had to.

…Because if he didn't do it then no one else would.

xXx

(Two Hours Later)

Class had finished and Naruto had to stop behind to wait for Tukiyo, which got secretive whispers and small gossips from the other kids except for Karin and Yuzu. Most of them just concluded it to the fact that Naruto was a boy of many fights, and tardiness, there probably wasn't a day where he didn't get himself into a tussle before turning up late for school.

But it wasn't that.

No.

Naruto had brought along a cup of instant ramen and needed Tukiyo to take him to the teachers' lounge so he could get some boiling hot water from the kettle to make it. Despite her strictness with Naruto, Tukiyo really did adore Naruto, because round about four months ago, Tukiyo was in an abusive marriage. She kept coming into work trying to conceal her bruises by leaving her hair down and trying to put a smile on her beautiful face to hide her sadness.

But Naruto could see it was a fake smile since many times had the boy did the same thing. It was how he coped with the pain of loneliness knowing that barely a soul wanted anything to do with him back in the day, for something he did not ask for. The blond confronted Tukiyo after school-hours were over, and more or less demanded to know what was bugging her.

At first she was understandably miffed that a student was talking to her in such a way, until she caught a glimpse of sadness in his usual happy filled ocean blue eyes, and then the passion of his voice was heard by the woman as Naruto spoke how wrong it was that someone would put one's hands on her.

He was even more furious once she confessed that it was her husband and responded by flinging the woman over his shoulder, and charging through the door. It took a full thirty minutes of Tukiyo's screaming and sputtering to get Naruto to stop running around town like a headless chicken stupidly looking for a place he had no idea was at.

She would've taken him home but after the strength Naruto displayed in his little body by effortlessly carrying her around the city halted any rebuttal she might've had and she hopefully, but also begrudgingly, showed the boy to the home of her and her husband.

She wasn't disappointed upon seeing Naruto stomp her ex-husband a new one once he heard the first line that came out of the abusive man's mouth.

"_You stupid bitch, don't expect me to feed that kid." _Were the poor son of a bitch's words as Naruto turned him black and blue. And to the blond's credit he downplayed the significance of his own win after he threatened the man to never come near Tukiyo again. He never did as he didn't want neither his friends nor family finding out the fact he was taken to the cleaners by a small boy more than half his size.

Bullies were truly weak.

And Naruto had gotten himself a precious person.

That was why she had leniency with Naruto, and tried to do the best she could for him since he lived on his own.

Right now the boy contently hopped up the stairs to his favourite place in the whole school yard after leaving the teachers' lounge in a hurry, because Tukiyo told him that eating ramen all the time would stunt his growth and that he must eat horrible greens to grow a few inches. Who was she all of a sudden? His momma?

No.

She was the ramen-lady, enabling him to cook his instant ramen cups in the lounge for the senseis of the school.

Now Naruto could dig into the hot steamy ramen he was miraculously carrying with no hands as he had his hands stabbed into his pockets.

That didn't sound right.

"Wait just a minute." Naruto said pensively, opening the door to the rooftop upon reaching the top floor of the building, "Shouldn't I be holding my delicious ramen in my hand right now? Unless I've got lev-."

"Naru-kun!" Yuzu remarked brightly, pulling Naruto from his thoughts to see the girls sitting on their knees in the middle of the rooftop with their lunch boxes placed in front of them.

Naruto walked in, grinning widely, "Hi Yuzu-chan! Sup, Karin! Whatcha girls doin' here? Shouldn't you be down stairs with em girl-chums of yours?"

"Really, we still have to go through this every time we eat lunch with you?" Karin asked dryly, her dark eyes staring at Naruto, making him chortle. Karin Kurosaki was cool whereas Yuzu Kurosaki was a sweetheart. Naruto found it interesting that they were twins, but yet didn't look like each other and had different personalities. It made them unique to Naruto.

Karin's sarcasm and dry humour made him laugh unless her remarks were about him and his intelligence which usually put a smirk on the black haired girl's face seeing Naruto pout like a child. Yuzu's innocence was always win-win for Naruto, because he liked to be around nice people. The sweet ones like Yuzu kind of gave him a purpose as he felt like he had to protect the girl from anyone brave enough to bully her.

What Haku said about being needed really hit the nail on the head?

God bless _her_ soul.

"Don't be silly, Naru-kun. You're our chum too, ya know," Yuzu chirped.

"Yay, I guess so." Naruto laughed, walking forward to the girls to take his seat that made Yuzu raise her eyebrow.

"Guess you couldna waited until you made it up here to stuff your face full of noodles, eh Naruto," Karin remarked sardonically.

"What?" Naruto blinked. What was that her sarcasm? "I ain't eaten ramen yet." The deadpanned look from Karin and the sigh from Yuzu's mouth made Naruto widen his eyes as he grabbed his hair, "Damn it! I left it in the lounge again!" The golden haired retard stood up, and thunderously blasted through the door leading to the rooftops, getting bizarre looks from the two females at his almost unnatural display of pace before a loud crashing noise sounded out from the direction of the stairs.

"Ouchy," Naruto groaned.

"Oh no, Naru-kun!" Yuzu gasped, "I hope he's not hurt." Yuzu went on as she prepared to stand up, and check on the 50th or something accident Naruto had had.

"Don't worry, Yuzu. He's fine." Karin assured her twin sister in calm indifference to which Yuzu gave her a bit of a tentative hum in return, "It's not the first time Naruto has fallen down the stairs, and it won't be the last time I am sure of it." Karin reminded her, making her settle down and sit back on her knees.

"I guess you're right. He gets hurt a lot like daddy does," Yuzu spoke, opening up her lunch box to take out her apple juice.

"It's why the old man and Naruto get along so well." Karin said nonchalantly, receiving a nod and a hum from Yuzu who pried open her apple juice by sticking the straw into it and taking a sip from it. Isshin Kurosaki and Naruto Uzumaki got along swimmingly well when the old man would come around to his place to collect Yuzu who more often than not found herself at the home of Naruto to tend to the boy's needs like making him some food or bringing him some if there was enough left-over from the dinner she'd prepared for herself, her sister, her brother, and her father.

Yuzu did a lot for the boy whose incompetence was so high it even made Isshin feel pity for him. Naruto clearly hadn't had any parents during his childhood years, even if he didn't outright confess such; it was too obvious not to know. He had no manners and lacked the skills necessary for taking care of himself, such as cooking skills, cleaning skills, and how to pay his own bills.

You name it Naruto lacked it.

Naruto was the definition of an orphaned child.

Of course there was a little heated blood when Isshin first met Naruto, as overprotective father mode blazed powerfully around Isshin's body, but he quickly seen the boy's naivety, and instantaneously encouraged Yuzu and Naruto's friendship to stay strong.

Simple-minded boys like Naruto shouldn't be left on their own to fend for themselves.

He might burn down the hostel he lived in if he was left alone.

"You think onii-chan would like Naru-kun?" Yuzu asked. Ichigo more or less blanked his little sister every time she brought Naruto up to him. He would tell her it was nice that she'd friends to care for in a lackadaisical voice and stroll past her, leaving Yuzu pouting at her older brother's lack of interest in her social life.

Karin offered her twin sister a shrug of her shoulders, "Meh. Probably, you never know with Ichi-nii."

"Why don't we introduce them?" Yuzu suggested with a smile on her face.

"How?" Karin asked before thinking pensively, "You're thinking of bringing Naruto to that Spirit Hunter festival aren't you?"

"Yep!" Yuzu chirped before crossing her arms over her chest and laughing in good spirits, "I think Naru-kun would like it. He's not a stuck in the mud like you or onii-chan." Yuzu pouted in a good-natured manner at her twin sister Karin, making Karin roll her eyes.

"Or he might think it's a waste of time since he can see spirits perfectly well." Karin said, a bored look on her face while Yuzu puffed her left cheek out cutely.

"Well I guess there's only one way to find out then." Yuzu smiled optimistically, making Karin sigh. Why did Yuzu and Isshin have to like that cheesy event of some man claiming to see spirits? It was so lame to Karin and Ichigo it was untrue. Worse of all Isshin was going to drag her along for the ride and maybe Ichigo if he could.

"That would be your best bet I suppose." Karin mumbled and Yuzu nodded in agreement with Karin.

XxX

(With Naruto)

*Ping*

The speedster ran into the teachers' lounge to see the patiently waiting form of his teacher standing by the microwave while tapping her foot on the ground and looking at her watch.

"You remembered to come back for your food in two minutes this time." Tukiyo said and Naruto chuckled sheepishly, pushing his index fingers together.

"You know me well Tukiyo-sensei!" Naruto chirped while Tukiyo took his ramen from the microwave after reheating Naruto's instant ramen as it got a little cold after being left on the side by Naruto who was in rush to get away from her.

"Just like I know how you don't like anything green." Tukiyo confirmed matter-of-factly, making Naruto wince as a look of dread came over his face, "…How do you expect to grow if you don't eat your greens young man." She sighed, walking over to Naruto to hand him his ramen-cup which he gratefully took from her grasp.

"C'mon obaa-san, I'm not that short!" Naruto frowned, causing Tukiyo to cringe at the nickname.

"Tell you what if you stop calling me that I'll stop pestering you about eating ramen." The forty-five year old woman offered.

"DEAL!" Naruto agreed cheerfully, pivoting on his heels, "And I won't tell the others your true age of forty-five either Tukiyo-sensei!" Naruto assured her loudly, receiving an angry shake of the fist from his teacher who had flames emitting around her form that made Naruto scream as he paced out of the lounge while being mindful not to spill any of his hot steamy broth.

"He'll be back." Tukiyo stated with her arms crossed over her chest. "In one, two, three, four,-" She cut herself off as the blond's feet were quietly heard coming toward her direction before Naruto smiled sheepishly at her.

"…Uhhh. I left my chopsticks here." The forgetful boy told her.

The woman shook her head with a smile on her face as she reached to the side of the microwave and picked up a pair of chopsticks before dropping them in Naruto's ramen cup, "Try to be more aware of your surroundings, Naruto-san."

"You bet boss lady!" Naruto grinned toothily at her before walking out of the lounge with his mind already having forgotten why he stormed out in the first place. Good grief, it was of no wonder why he was so forgiving. He couldn't remember a damn thing. But despite all that Tukiyo was still fond of him.

"Naruto-san's a good boy…"

XxX

The boy made his way upstairs and onto the rooftop once again where he found his two lady friends still sitting on their knees waiting for him to arrive.

"Hey, how is it going you two? What brings ya here? Watching the clouds or something?" Naruto asked. Karin's stare of dryness reminded him what they were doing on the rooftop, "…Oh yeah. Never mind then. Hahahahahaha." Naruto chortled as he sat in between Yuzu and Karin.

"Good grief, you're so forgetful. You'll probably forget your own marriage or leave your wife at the airport if you ever get one." Karin said, opening her lunch box to eat her lunch now that Naruto was here to eat his.

A confused expression was on Naruto's face, "I have a wife?" He turned his head to look at Karin who recoiled in suppressed fury.

"Why are you looking at me for, idiot?!" Karin shouted and Naruto chuckled while a cringle of jealousy hit Yuzu's heart, but she didn't understand it. She just thought that Naruto should realistically think she was his wife as she logically done a lot for him that Naruto took for granted as he was too oblivious to see the importance of Yuzu's work for him.

"Haha! You're funny, Karin!" Naruto giggled before he settled down to dig into his ramen.

"Funny, or are you just insane whack-job?" Karin groused and got a nudge in her arm from Yuzu. Naruto missed the glare from Karin aimed at Yuzu as he contently started slurping his noodles.

"Oh, yeah, have you ever heard of a show called Spirit Hunter before Naru-kun?" Yuzu asked excitedly, receiving a groan from Karin that she ignored as Naruto turned his head to her with noodles trailing from his mouth. She abruptly giggled. He looked so adorable when he was eating.

Naruto tried to speak but his words came out muffled.

"Swallow before you speak Naruto." Karin told him and Naruto did just that.

"I was trying to say that sounds pretty cool. Do they like send spirits to heaven or something?" Naruto asked after taking in a huge breath of air.

"Yes, Naru-kun!" Yuzu confirmed enthusiastically, "Don-Kanonji defends the people by sending the spirits over to the other side. Isn't that amazing?"

"Badass!" Naruto cheered alongside Yuzu while Karin watched the two like they had grown second heads.

"My onii-chan will be there too. It'll be the perfect time for you to meet him." Yuzu smiled.

Naruto cupped his chin, "Oh yeah. You told me about that guy. How is he anyway? You girls didn't come into school last week." Yuzu had a sad look on her face.

"Yeah. Onii-chan's doing alright. Though, sometimes he can be a bit aloof." Yuzu said with Naruto hearing the sadness in her voice.

"Is everything okay? Does it have something to do with why you girls weren't here last week?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Oh it's nothing Naru-kun." Yuzu tried to brush it off with a forced smile on her face but Naruto was not to be fooled. He didn't pry into the matter anymore than that since it wasn't any of his business to know, "Anyway, Spirit Hunter will be performing right here in Karakura Town tonight. So Karin-chan and I figured you might want to come along and meet Ichigo-oniichan."

Naruto smiled hugely, "Alrighty! Sure! I'll come with you two and meet this strawberry-guy!" Karin cringed at that. Ichigo would kill him if he heard the boy calling him by the meaning of his name instead of his actual name.

"Wonderful!" Yuzu clapped her hands together, "I'm positive that you'll enjoy Spirit Hunter as much as daddy and myself do, Naru-kun." Naruto nodded and looked at Karin to see if she liked Spirit Hunter and she merely waved her hand dismissively that told Naruto not to ask. Naruto obliged and the three ate their lunches peacefully.

XxX

(Karakura High School – Rooftop – Ichigo – Chad – Keigo – Mizuiro – Rukia - Tatsuki - Orihime)

"Achoo!"

The friends of Ichigo turned to him as he sneezed absently while they all were enjoying their lunches on the rooftop of Karakura High School.

"Bless you Kurosaki-kun." Orihime said helpfully, making Ichigo grunt.

"Yeah. Thanks." Ichigo thanked her languidly, getting a smile from her as she resumed eating her lunch as normal while Ichigo attempted to divulge why he had the urge to stomp on a fishcake. 'Weird. I feel like I never want to so much as see another fishcake again.' It was probably just his instincts since he hated fishcakes anyway, 'Yeah. That's probably it.'

Little did Ichigo know he would be meeting a certain rowdy fishcake very soon.

* * *

**Strength such as brute force, striking power, and lifting strength. **

**1- Chad**

**2 - Ichigo**

**3 - Naruto **

**Motion speed as it is now**

**1- Naruto **

**2 - Ichigo (hasn't trained yet)**

**3 - Chad**

**Reaction speed (dodging and all that)**

**1 - Ichigo **

**2 - Chad**

**3 - Naruto**

**Energy levels, such as reiatsu reserves and chakra capacity**

**1 - Ichigo**

**2 - Naruto**

**3 - Chad**

**Stamina (Who runs longest without getting tired)**

**1 - Naruto **

**2 - Ichigo **

**3 - Chad**

**Endurance (Who can withstand a beating the longest)**

**1 - I think this is a no-brainer. Chad **

**2 - Ichigo **

**3 - Naruto**


	2. Watch Your Back

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Naruto. **

**Those rankings from the last chapter were based only on base form Naruto, they had nothing to do with the Kyuubi chakra coming into play. When that happens it's a different ball game. And speed... well speed is very iffy. For example, Whitebeard, for the most part he stood around and did nothing, but the second something came within his radius he was able to react instantly. Like that time when he fucked up a mini giant Vice admiral in the marineford arc.**

**Running speed though, Naruto beats Chad all day, every day of the week. No problem. **

**I hope that clear things up a little.**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Watch Your Back **

"Why can't Naru-kun come with us daddy?" Yuzu whined.

She and Karin had bid Naruto goodbye after school was over and after promising him that he would meet Ichigo today. Naruto looked pretty excited as he rushed off to do his own thing. He was probably going to the arcade to play some video games. He liked doing that.

However the girls ran into a little problem when they got home.

The Kurosaki's residence was a small place with a kitchen/living room as one with three bedrooms, one for the girls, one for Ichigo, and one for Isshin. It was very well furnished with a 40 inch plasma screen TV, a three piece cream coloured suite with a similar colour used to paint the walls, and a picture of a beautiful orange haired lady on the wall near the window.

Karin eyed her father suspiciously from where she was sitting on the couch with her legs sprawled out on it and her arm resting on the side and her head looking over at her father and sister in the kitchen part of the room, 'Strange. Normally the old man likes Naruto, a lot. So why would he forbid Yuzu from bringing him to Spirit Hunter?'

"Sorry, Yuzu-chan, Naruto can't come to Spirit Hunter today," Isshin told his daughter with an uncharacteristic serious look on his face, making his precious daughter cry.

Isshin was a tall lean built man with black spiky hair, stubble, and side-burns with a pair of onyx eyes matching his hair.

The normally goofy loving man's attire consisted of a long white lab coat over a yellow Hawaii shirt with orange pine trees covering the shirt. (He had to smile when Naruto called him cool seeing his shirt for the first time.) A pair of black trousers and a couple geta sandals completed his appearance.

Isshin's soft heartedness was beginning to make him sweat as he stared into his daughter's sparking eyes and quivering lips, the very effective puppy dog eyed look, "Please daddy, you and Naru-kun can have a nice time together if you let him come with us."

Isshin crossed his arms over his chest and made straining noises if he were weighing the options of bringing Naruto to Spirit Hunter with them. His antics made his black haired daughter roll her eyes as she thought he was over-exaggerating like he always did. In all actuality, Isshin was thinking of the consequences of letting Naruto meet Ichigo, more importantly allowing Naruto to be near Ichigo's 'friend'.

There was a lot about Isshin that his son or family didn't know, like for instance he knew how and why his son was able to become a shinigami. That particularly reason coursed through his veins, giving him knowledge of where Rukia had come from and awareness of the bottomless-pit amount of power Naruto had in his little body.

The boy had as much reiatsu as him which wasn't too much lower than his son's own reiatsu reserves. His wife had tribal blood of another race within her, which she passed on to Ichigo, complementing his own reiatsu reserves to near godly levels. The poor boy didn't even know he was leaking reiatsu of an S-class level while living with D-class control.

The same could be said for Naruto… Naruto. Where does a little boy gain such incredible reserves from? Where'd he come from? Ever since five months ago he had been on the radar of a good friend of Isshin's due to the amount of reiatsu he had within his system.

The friend of Isshin had another friend whom became a little worried for the safety of Naruto. The boy was like a supercharged magnet attracting others to it (him) with the amount of reiatsu (spiritual pressure) he had flowing through his veins. In this case the other magnets of the south-pole were hollows, hungry demonic creatures stalking the world of the living looking for souls to feast on.

She watched over the boy in her animal form as if she were his guardian angel, occasionally dropping money nearby his location for him to find and get himself a treat.

But anyway, Isshin and the other veteran warriors were wary of the fact that their original place of preparation for the beings they became would become aware of Naruto and his massive reserves of reiatsu. That wasn't too farfetched. Some of the celestial beings whom inhabited Isshin's place of origin were of a different class.

They could detect Naruto's S-class level of reiatsu reserves. Isshin wouldn't put pass them to have already sensed Naruto's power. They might not know Naruto had no control over the amount of energy he had within him and would send two divine warriors of the highest class within the Soul Society if they decided Rukia was due for a recall.

In fact it went even deeper than that.

"Daddy," Yuzu's soft voice broke Isshin out of his musings, "Please." The girl looked to be on the verge of tears, making her father frantically grab his hair before he reached for the buttons on his shirt, determined to console her as if she were a little baby of four years old.

"DON'T WORRY SWEETIE! DADDY'S MAGNICLENT CHEST WILL COMFORT YOU!" Isshin yelled, prying open his shirt and lunging in on Yuzu to squeeze the tears right out of her, but was stopped and instead was sent flying off in a rolling heap by a side kick that hammered into the side of his face by his daughter Karin.

"We're not babies anymore idiot!" Karin shouted heatedly, with Yuzu sighing as she knew what was coming next.

"MASAKI!" Isshin wailed comically, sprinting over to the picture of his deceased wife before bending down on his knees and sprawling his hands on it, "Our daughter mistreats me so bad my dear!"

"You're stalling old man." Karin's voice held no amusement or remorse in it. In truth, she missed her mother, all of them did. But they couldn't wallow in self-pity forever now, because after all everyone had to die at some time in their lives. The only thing that they could do was live the rest of their lives while keeping the memories of their mother/wife in their hearts.

Isshin flinched, realizing his antics had been caught on by Karin, "Come on daddy. Why can't Naru-kun come with us to Spirit Hunter? You two always get along." Yuzu pressed on.

Isshin wobbled to his feet before placing his hands together with his all of his fingers except his index fingers curled in, his two index fingers forming a bridge while he gave a bashful smile to his two daughters, "Well you see-."

"Well." Karin said expectantly, tapping her foot on the ground with her arms crossed over her chest.

"I thought it could be a f-." He could've said he wanted it to be a family night out, but then Yuzu would just be upset during the whole event because her dear friend Naruto wasn't there with them. And Isshin never wanted to make either one of his precious daughters sad in any way possible.

Ichigo was a big boy, he could look after himself. Yuzu and Karin however, they had to be protected. And that wasn't just because they failed to inherit any powers from either one of their parents' tribal sides. Hey, Masaki was human. Perhaps all of her powers were passed on to her first child and her first child only, leaving none for the girls barring high awareness for Karin.

That was just fine with Isshin. He didn't want his daughters getting powers anyway. Ichigo, however, was a man. And men were rough. Not cute and adorable like Yuzu and Karin.

"Ya' know what? Naruto's free to tag along with us if he wants to." Isshin finally relented with a weak grin on his face as he stumbled to his feet while Yuzu smiled brightly.

"Yay, thank you daddy!" Yuzu squealed, skipping off to the phone to ring the blue eyed boy's place of living, "I'm going to phone Naru-kun right now! I'm sure he'll be thrilled to come with us to see Don-Kanonji in action. Yup, indeed he will."

Isshin let out a sigh before abruptly recoiling as he saw Karin leaned up against the wall with her arms held over her chest, one leg resting on the wall while the other one was out stretched, "So why'd you not want Naruto to meet Ichi-nii?" It was more of a guess then a question from the black haired girl. Out of the four of them Ichigo was the only one who hadn't met the rowdy blond boy for better or for worse.

Isshin had a rain fall of sweat rapidly running down his face as his daughter kept her eyes shut without turning her head to him. He needed to say something stupid to get her off of the question she requested of him to answer. There was no need for her to discover that the world was full of demonic-like creatures hunting for humans to snack on with ascended samurai-like warriors coming from 'heaven' to purify the wandering hollows.

It would be even more terrifying for Karin to know those celestial beings could come for Ichigo's 'friend' and might send one of their stronger elites to deal with Naruto if they detected his reiatsu signature around Rukia's. They were bound to send one just to deal with Ichigo, and that spelt trouble since the rude boy still wasn't on that level of a S-classed captain. He still needed to tame that massive reserve of energy inside of himself and meditate in order to unleash the true and full power of his chosen sword.

"Oh Karin-chan, have you got a little crush on Naruto?!" Isshin teased with a huge grin at Karin, trying to sway away from the subject at hand.

"I guess that's a _completely _legit and relevant question to the topic at hand eh old man?" Karin mumbled sarcastically, turning her head to glare at Isshin for even implying that she had a crush on Naruto.

Isshin sweated. Damn his daughter was good and cold too. It must be a habit she inherited from her mother's side of the family, "Ohhh. Don't lie sweetie. You just want your future husband to meet the family," The chirpy doctor stubbornly chased a lost cause. He would probably kick himself for basically admitting one of his baby girls was no longer his little girl. But it was better for Isshin to hear that it wasn't the case from Karin then to tell her the truth.

Daddy protects his little girls!

Karin's glare intensified at Isshin, "You must be the hit on the internet then." She said wryly, fed up with her father's trolling.

"Oh. Okay, can you inform Naru-kun he's welcomed to come to Spirit Hunter today," Yuzu said over the phone. Isshin was happy for the distraction as Karin turned her head to look at her sister who had the phone held on her ear.

Yuzu droned as she listened to the feminine voice over the line before hanging up with a sigh coming from her lips.

"Naruto's not home then huh?" Karin breathed out.

Yuzu turned to her sister, putting her hands on her hips, "Yeah. He's hasn't returned since leaving school earlier."

"Meh. He's probably at the arcade. I ain't seen him take up any afterschool clubs." Karin said.

"Hmm. That reminds me. Wasn't you meant to attend soccer practice after school today?" Yuzu questioned her twin sister, causing her shoulders to lift up before dropping them back down again carelessly.

"Na. Everyone's to psyched up for Spirit Hunter to give a rat's ass about training." Karin informed dryly.

"I told you it was a super, duper event Karin-chan~." Yuzu sang and Karin rolled her eyes.

"I wonder why pops didn't want Naruto coming to Spirit Hunter before you convinced him to let Naruto come with us." Karin pondered idly.

"Maybe he's worried about Naru-kun being too close to us," Yuzu guessed.

Karin's look of dryness did not falter in the least, "Worried of Naruto, seriously? C'mon sis. He's not exactly the brightest bulb now."

Yuzu let out a giggle, "Yeah. Naru-kun will probably have to get told to his face five times that a girl has a crush on him." Yuzu joked and Karin deadpanned.

"What?"

"Nothing sis."

xXx

(Elsewhere)

"Gotcha!" The goofy doctor cheered happily, pulling out a carton of cigarettes and a lighter from the hidden pocket of his lab coat. He took one out of the box, brought the white and brown stick filled with tobacco to his lips, and made sparks flare up as he lit up his lighter before hovering the blue and orange hued flame in front of his cigarette.

He took in a leisured breath, 'the-lung-cancer-on-a-stick' burning as it did so. The lighter went back into his jacket as he blew a cloud of see-through smoke from his mouth, the cigarette resting in between his index and middle fingers, "Phew! I still got it." Isshin declared, standing on the rooftop of the Kurosaki-clinic/home and staring at the bright sun lighting up the city.

It was like a way of forgetting the problems of the present, staring at the beating sun and freeness of the clouds floating endlessly in the sky. Isshin could almost forget that his wife wasn't dead, his son wasn't a celestial warrior, he was doing well in school, Yuzu and Karin would remain daddy little girls forever, and no beings with a demonic aura around them was after Naruto.

Ignorance was bless.

But in the real world peace and happiness can never reign supreme.

Isshin eventually let out a sigh, knowing that he would have to phone his long-time friend and inform the crazy man of his decision to bring Naruto to Spirit Hunter, "…Guess I ought to tell my buddy that Naruto's coming to Spirit Hunter." Isshin whipped out his phone from his pocket and propped himself down on the rooftop, knees curled up to his chest.

He scrolled through the contacts of people he had come to know within his years of staying under the radar in the world of the living to see a picture of a pair of eyes, the rest of the face was shadowed by something on the man's head. Isshin pressed the dial button and moved his phone to his ear.

"Here goes nothing."

XxX

(Elsewhere)

Quite the distance away from Karakura Town was a mostly isolated place except for the few brave ones willing to climb the humongous piece of stone that towered over Karakura Town.

The mountainside was the perfect area for one orange clad knuckleheaded ninja boy to sharpen his much rusted skills in the arts of the shinobi. He may have been a tad naïve and outright childish, but Naruto wasn't dumb _enough _to believe the people of this world believed in the essence of chakra and utilizing it to pull off jutsus.

Heck most of them didn't even believe in the existence of ghosts for crying out loud! How could they not? They had been living here for a lot longer than Naruto had beforehand. Was it because they weren't special enough to see the spirits failing to attend heaven before mysteriously finding their way to the heavenly world?

That was something that left Naruto perplexed when he would come across a spirit on his daily and evening walks to school and home respectively, but of course he would forget due to his short memory. He wouldn't even dare reveal his powers or his place of birth to his lady friends or anyone for that matter, especially after the blond boy witnessed that 'ninja-film' on TV.

They were so uncool it wasn't even funny. No chakra, barely any cool attacks, they were just a bunch of black-clothed-wearing-assassins. At the very least they could've worn orange. The only thing Naruto remotely found cool about that movie was the way the character Rikumaru handily wiped out his enemies from the shadows.

Okay, he wasn't gonna lie. That was pretty badass!

Naruto panted as he freed his weapons from the mountain he'd thrown at. He was steadily improving his aim little by little but his throwing still wasn't flawless. He needed to make an 'N' out of shuriken-stars by hurling them at the mountain like that Zorro-guy does, because he was kind of cool.

"…Training's no fun when I'm doing it by myself." Naruto sighed, looking up at the sky and picturing a semblance of a white-haired old man with a ridiculous boisterous expression on his face, "Ugh! Where's Ero-sennin when you need him! I need some motivation here!"

Naruto stashed away his weapons while shaking his head, "I might as well blow some stream while I'm up here." Naruto made the criss-cross hand-sign, "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)**." A huge amount of white smoke obstructed the area, revealing one hundred replicas of Naruto all with the same white papers on their backs as the original.

The Naruto-clones were all looking at each other before the boss spoke up, "Listen up you bunch of awesome blonde dudes! It's you guys against me! Beat me if you can!" Naruto challenged. The clones were all giving him odd looks before grinning animally as they realized the reference within this onslaught of the boss!

"Alrighty! You're going down boss!" One of the clones shouted and the others roared in agreement with it before the clones gangbanged on the original Naruto like a pack of wolves.

"Not if the future hokage of Konoha has anything to say about it! Dattebayo!" Naruto argued thunderously, jumping down on his hand and letting his right leg rip around, knocking ten screaming clones to the ground and dispelling them in a burst of smoke.

He was then booted up in the air by four clones while another five hopped sky high into the air while flipping insanely, "**Uzumaki Rendan (Uzumaki Barrage)**!" The boss was hammered directly into the solid ground of the mountainside with ferocity, his clones joyously laying into him with kicks and punches of cheeriness.

The stubborn ninja doggedly powered his way to his feet, tanking his clones' blows and returning them in spades that made smoke blow up in his face and obstruct his view of his clones, but that didn't stop him from battering away at his clones while at the same time enduring the many blows they threw at him in return.

XxX

While the royal rumble of blond lookalikes was raging on, they never noticed the little black cat chilling on top of the mountain and watching the one boy versus a hundred lookalikes of him with a sweat drop falling off of the side of its head.

"It must take a special kind of moron to beat himself up," The cat guessed playfully, smirking. "Kids his age should be at the arcade with their friends, not alone using techniques I've never seen before." The poor boy reminded the cat of its most precious person to date.

*Sigh* She was so loyal to the cat and very well mannered. The cat believed the woman was too respectable to the point that the cat tried to make the woman more lax around her, but she would always treat the cat like it was on a higher plateau to her. Despite all of that the laid back cat always cherished the friendship 'it' shared with the meekly lady.

Once the cat had gotten out of its mini depression, it noticed a thoroughly exhausted Naruto flatly spread out like a pancake while his chest expended up and down, "Woops. I must have drifted off there." The cat concluded as it began to venture down the rock hard surface of the mountain 'it' was on.

"Lemme make my presence known to him now, I think it's the right time. Besides, he already knows of the existence of ghosts. I'm sure Kisuke will understand." The cat said to itself, preparing to come face to face with Naruto for the first time since it took up the role of assuring that the nasty beings didn't devour him by banishing them from this world.

XxX

"Aw. Ouch." Naruto groaned painfully, bruises and lumps on his face before his regenerative powers kicked in and his wounds slowly started healing, "Damn that hurt! My clones sure are ruthless when they work together." The Jinchuuriki-boy whispered tiredly, allowing his eyes to close slowly while eyeing the sky.

His eyes didn't even register the golden orbs staring down at him as he fully shut his eyes and felt himself being carried away on the fluffy clouds up in the sky.

"Hiya."

Naruto flinched and shot his eyes open at the sound of a masculine voice. The only thing he could see was the same cryptic black fur ball of luckiness looking down at him almost curiously.

"Hey. You wouldn't happen to know who just called out to me would ya? Maybe it's just my head going screwy. I think my clones mighta knocked a few loose screws outta my head." Naruto declared, his bright blue orbs excruciatingly shutting again.

"You must be a special breed of fool to wanna beat yourself up, little one."

Naruto's eyes opened up at the quip, his back lifting up as his head shifted from side to side rapidly, "Okay. Whoever just said that, just knock it off alright?" Naruto's eyes settled on the black cat that seemed to be giving him a smile to vex him.

The cat raised its paw at Naruto, "Sup?"

Naruto gasped hugely, leaping to his feet as shock appeared all over his whisker-marked face, "You can talk! You can talk! You can talk!"

"Yes, indeed I can Wind-up-doll-san." The cat remarked wryly, but Naruto neither cared nor gave a damn as he frantically grinded his hands into his messy locks while gawking at the cat and repeating his line over and over again, "I guess that bit of info must've short circuited the tape playing in his brain." The cat quipped.

After Naruto had taken several breath deeps, he had to glare at the cheeky cat when it gave him a look that just screamed 'Are you done now?'

"So you can talk. Is that how you kept finding me?" Naruto asked.

"You can run but it'll be futile to hide if you don't take proper measurements to suppress that huge abundant amount of reiatsu you have little one-~." The cat sang.

"What?" Naruto was puzzled, "'Re-race-sue'? What's 'Reracesue'?" This time it was the cat's turn to be confused at Naruto's reply

"You dunno what 'reiatsu' is little one? Ya know, as in spiritual energy." The cat probed again.

Naruto shook his head nonchalantly, "Notta clue fur ball."

'Interesting… if that's not reiatsu I've sensed from him all of this time, then what could possibly be attracting so many hollows to him? He has to have some kinda spirit energy within him. Otherwise he would never be on the radar of an S-class shinigami.' The cat thought pensively, Naruto looking at it thoughtfully.

'Now that I think about it, a talking cat isn't so bad! After all Chief Toad is a massive talking animal alongside his other henchmen and son.' Naruto concluded as he nodded to himself. He accepted that every world had different sets of talking animals, 'Uhhh. Where do they come from though?' Because whenever he tries to summon Chief Toad or Gamikichi he fails.

'At least that means they're not summoning creatures then.' Naruto frowned at that.

"Is something the matter?" The cat asked, noticing Naruto's look of disproven.

"Huh? Oh no, nothing's the matter Grandm-. Grandp-. Uhhh. Are you a boy cat or a girl cat?" Naruto questioned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

The cat gleamed deviously, "Whaddya think I am Whiskers?" Naruto pouted in annoyance at the nickname while the cat smirked cheekily at him. It better not had been implying that his whiskers resembled a cat's whiskers, because they didn't. They _were _a fox's whiskers, a ferocious, wild, and mischievous fox. Not a cat that got startled way too easy.

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and squinted his eyes, droning intensively before he opened his eyes and pointed his index finger at the cat, "I'm not falling for that one cat!"

"Excuse me?"

"There was this pretty girl back in my homeland and she almost tricked me into thinking she was a boy!" Naruto huffed while refolding his arms over his chest. "Now cough it up, are you a boy or girl cat?"

The cat chuckled bashfully, "Well you're not one to waste time with niceties are you?" The cat questioned jestingly, getting Naruto to frown immaturely, "Alright. Alright. Since I'm not for that either, I'll tell that I'm a female cat."

Naruto nodded his head, "What's your name?"

"My name's Yoruichi Shihōin." The now identified Yoruichi introduced herself while wondering why on earth she could interact so easily with the blond boy. Most kids, even ones with a strange energy source similar to that of reiryoku, wouldn't stop to give Yoruichi the time of day. Yet Naruto willingly did so without being prompted.

"Alrighty, I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto grinned brightly.

"I know." Yoruichi stated matter-of-factly.

"How? Are you a mind reader cat?" Naruto asked, jumping away from Yoruichi with his arms covering his face defensively, "Don't read my mind!"

Yoruichi chortled. This boy was really amusing and easy-going. He and she really had compatible personalities, "Oh c'mon Whiskers, you couldn't have forgotten our little meetings on your daily walks to school?"

Naruto pointed dumbly at himself, "I told you my name?"

"Yep," Yoruichi smiled at Naruto.

"Heh," Naruto scratched his cheek absently, "Musta let it slip my mind. Sorry about that Yoruichi."

"It's not your fault." Yoruichi assured Naruto, 'And I mean that quite literally,' Yoruichi added in her mind mischievously, knowing that she knew Naruto's name from Kisuke who in returned learnt it from Isshin on one of his occasional calls to his old friend. She could tell him that but then it would unravel Isshin's identity to him, and that was something Yoruichi wasn't going to do, because it wasn't any of her business to go around spouting off.

"So Naruto," Naruto looked at Yoruichi curiously as he watched the cat point her paw at his stomach, "I still feel an impressive amount of reiryoku in your system. What is it?"

"Well that's chakra." Naruto shrugged before grinning proudly, "I got lots of it! I can make thirty clones and still have enough chakra left to awesomely kick butt!"

"Kick butt indeed." Yoruichi smirked all-knowingly at Naruto, making him blush as he realized she'd seen him beat up delinquents and thugs on his way to school, "Where does this 'chakra' come from then Naruto?"

"Uhhh." Naruto stalled. He could tell her that it came from another world because it didn't sound completely insane to majestically and mysteriously vanish from one's home to a next! Nonsense! Of course it sounded unbelievable and insane. "America. Yep. Chakra's the moulding of physical and spiritual energies present in every cell of the body! It's how I managed to walk up the wall to you every day."

Yoruichi's eyes narrowed at Naruto and Naruto sweated thinking that she'd caught on to his innuendo, 'Hmm. Sounds like this chakra's the equivalent of reiatsu. If so, then it's understandable why hollows would see the need to absorb him into their beings,' Yoruichi summarized. She did feel that Naruto was only telling her half-truths since she couldn't recall feeling any energy within any American civilian on her old patrol duties centuries ago, but she wouldn't force him to tell her.

Naruto was relieved of such as he sighed visibly, "Hey, cat-lady? What is reracesue?"

Yoruichi laughed carelessly, making Naruto glare at her prompting her to explain how the energy system worked in this world, "Well I was positive that you'd 'reiatsu' which is the power in use Whiskers after you walked up the wall to stroke me behind my ear." Yoruichi stopped herself absently, stretching out her limbs while hinting at her ear.

Naruto chuckled slightly as he placed his hand on Yoruichi's ear and nibbled into it with his nails smoothly, receiving purring noises from the mysterious woman cat.

"Ah. That hits the spot. Okay. I'll start from the beginning. Firstly, there is Reiryoku (Spirit Energy), the potential which lies in all humans, but when those mischievous little rascals like you have a larger amount of reiryoku it can result in those rascals becoming spiritually aware." Naruto pouted at Yoruichi and her cheeky explanation of why he could see ghosts.

His chakra clearly acted as a substitute for reiryoku and that was why he could witness spirits wandering the world of the living.

"Reiatsu is a little more complex Whiskers, but it's merely reiryoku just in a form that can be used to measure how powerful a shinigami is."

"Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Hold up, hit the pause button, and back it up!" Naruto shouted crazily, waving his hands around, "Are you trying to tell me that reapers with scythes could come for me any time in the day?" Naruto feared. It just wasn't fair. First he had to get use to seeing ghosts only to learn the devil's right hand-man personally worked in this world!

Not cool.

"No, Naruto, shinigami-elites carry they own unique forged weapons partly made from their very souls," Yoruichi explained informatively, making Naruto look at her curiously.

"Whattttt? It's that simple to become a reaper-thingy?" Naruto asked hopefully, receiving a shake of the head from Yoruichi.

"Nope! The blood of a shinigami has to lie in your very veins in order to become one. In other words, you'd have to inherit the genes from a parent." Yoruichi elucidated.

"Oh. Well I didn't want to become one anyway," Naruto said. He was more fascinated what a blade from his own soul would look like more than disappointed since he wasn't a swordsman within any means of the imagination.

"I bet you just wanted a cool sword to show off to your girlfriends at school," Yoruichi chirped teasingly.

"That isn't it! And they're not my girlfriends, dattebayo!" Naruto yelled righteously, arms folding over his chest while Yoruichi laughed out loud.

"Anyway," Yoruichi wiped a tear from her golden eye with her paw from laughing so hard, "Most exponentially skilled shinigami have great reiatsu merely due to the fact that they'd great reiryoku. Those exponentially talented shinigami could defeat other shinigami or creatures that possess great reiryoku by possessing even greater reiatsu. But… and there's a catch. It usually comes after gaining control over one's own reiryoku."

Naruto had his arms crossed over his chest, his legs crossed like a four year old child, and eyes squinted like he always did when he was utterly confused or in deep thought about something, "Uhmm! Can you repeat that again?"

"Well you're most certainly not the sharpest knife in the drawer," Yoruichi quipped, causing Naruto to bristle.

"Are you calling me weak?"

Yoruichi looked at the kid oddly, "No. I was calling the kettle black."

"Ohhhhh! Well that's okay then." Naruto nodded to himself before a confused expression was washed over his features again, "What does you calling the kettle black have to do with anything. You are black! I don't get it. Nope-nope!"

"Never mind…" Yoruichi brushed off the sarcastic remark she'd made since it would take a while to explain what it actually meant to his small brain and she'd something of more significance that needed to be made clear to the knucklehead ninja.

It took a while but eventually Yoruichi had managed to drill in the details of what reiatsu and reiryoku was to Naruto, "Oh! I get it now! Reiryoku is kinda like a fortune teller giving a random guess to how strong some shinigami will be. And reiatsu is the power used to kick butt! It's so simple! Why didn't you explain it to me like that all along… dattebayo!"

Yoruichi's eyes widened comically and bizarrely, thinking this kid must've eaten twenty crazy pills every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to get _that _insane.

"Well you know now. It took you long enough," Yoruichi stated, looking up at the full moon that casted over the both of them. Naruto followed her lead, mesmerizing himself at the beauty of the silvery rock in the night sky full of stars. The moon back in his own world was never silver. It was _red _of all the colours, _red _like the _sharingan._

"Yeahhhh." Naruto drawled out, "Hey, Cat-lady," Yoruichi looked at Naruto, "How come you kept following me around every day? I mean there must've been a reason for that right?"

Yoruichi gleamed mischievously, "I just thought you wouldn't want to become a tasty snack for D-class apparition."

Naruto flinched as fear overtook him, "Ghosts wanna eat me? But I'm not healthy, and I don't taste good!" Naruto panicked and Yoruichi chortled loudly.

"Not to worry, Whiskers! I doubt hollows could've gotten you so easily, you are pretty quick for a human." Yoruichi complimented.

"Hollows?"

"Yes, hollows, beings that linger in a dimension known as Hueco Mundo. Humans are known to become hollows if they stay bound to the world of the living for too long and lose their hearts to despair or regret. It's a shinigami's duty to use their Zanpakuto to purify a hollow, otherwise a hollow will stay wandering the living world in search of a loved one or a grudge they held beyond the grave."

"So hollows enjoy snacking on human souls as much as I love digging into ramen." Naruto summed up the devilish beings with a gulp.

"Pretty much." Yoruichi agreed nonchalantly, "Those humans turn into hollows themselves if they don't get turned into hollows by other hollows first."

Naruto paled. He wouldn't want to become a hollow now, or any day of the week, month, and year, "So how can you get rid of the hollows following me Cat-lady? Do you play cat and mouse with 'em and lead 'em away from me by charging through the city at full force."

"No. Whatever made you think that Whiskers?" Yoruichi asked jestingly, "I myself am actually ancient being of century's years old. I've been purifying hollows before you were even old enough to say 'dummy'."

"What are you saying?" An wide-eyed Naruto asked, "That _you're a_ shinigami?"

"Yep!" Yoruichi chirped, "Wanna see my true form?" Playfully, Yoruichi grew a smirk on her face while both of her golden slits sparkled in devious fashion.

"True form? You mean like a henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu)," Yoruichi questionably looked at Naruto, getting him to chuckle sheepishly, "It's one of the jutsus I pack in my arsenal! I can transform into everything! Plants, people, buildings, cars, heck, I can turn into you!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly, holding his hands in the ram seal, "Watch I'll show ya!" Naruto focused his chakra, "**Henge no Jutsu**!" A puff of smoke shrouded Naruto, causing Yoruichi to cough.

Once the smoke cleared up, Yoruichi was surprised to find that Naruto had vanished and in his place was a replica of herself in her cat-form, "See? It's awesome!" Even Naruto's voice was now an exact carbon copy of Yoruichi's masculine one in animal form.

'This boy is full of surprises. With his abilities to multiply himself into a dozen copies of himself and to morph into any object or living creature to his knowledge he could essentially be the most stealthiest ninja ever,' Yoruichi mused with an impressive hum coming from her lips, 'He's putting the stealth force to blame in despite of his bright clothing.'

Another cloud of white smoke erupted and vanished to reveal Naruto, "So what's this 'true form' you were going on 'bout Cat-lady?"

"Do you really wanna know?"

"Yeah. Sure why not?"

"Okay. I just hope you'll have enough body fluid left for your night out with your 'lady-friends.'" Yoruichi teased wittily, confusing Naruto until a blinding luminous sky blue glow enveloped Yoruichi's whole body, as if she were going to evolve. An wide-eyed Naruto gaped at the morphing humanoid being in front of him as its back slowly rose up, the four legs of the previous cat-form expending in length with two becoming majestic arms while the other two were growing even longer, staying smooth and flawless.

A beautiful pair of hips of perfect elegance was shown next and once the light down, a goddess of absolute beauty, pure gracefulness, was displayed in front of the shocked faced blond boy who was looking like he had seen a ghost or at the very least had a remembrance of one. No pun intended since the purple haired, golden eyed beauty was technically a ghost with her dark skin and DD-cup breasts that had not an ounce of clothing concealing it.

Free for all to see.

"You're naked." Naruto mumbled horrifyingly, pointing at the nude shinigami who had her hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Hahahaha! It never disappoints seeing the reactions of those that I haven't shown this form to yet." Yoruichi laughed.

"Hehe. I guess that is pretty funny," Naruto chuckled, looking at Yoruichi like it was natural for a woman that gorgeous to be naked in front of a boy of twelve years of age, 'Hmm. I could use this to improve my Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu), research can equal knowledge and knowledge equals power,' Naruto shook his head with a scowl on his features, 'Damn it! Ero-sennin rubbed off on me!' Squinting his eyes at Yoruichi, Naruto took in her young appearance and remembered that she told him she was infinitely older than him.

'Wait a minute. Shouldn't she be an an ol-?' Naruto stopped himself right there. 'She must be disguised as a young lady like Tsunade-baachan!' And Naruto always called 'em as he seen 'em. And with that on his mind, the boy pointed the accusing finger at Yoruichi making her stare weirdly at him.

"YOU'RE AN OLD LADY!"

A flinch of epic proportions from the naked woman let Naruto know he'd hit a sensitive nerve.

Sometimes it was good to be a little rascal.

XxX

(With Ichigo and Rukia)

"Ugh. Tell me again why are we going to Spirit Hunter again?" Ichigo asked lackadaisically, walking home with Rukia, both still in their uniforms with the former looking noticeably worn out from purifying hollows and sending spirits over to the other side via Konso.

"Because I think there's a spirit bound to the old run down hospital of which this event is taking place." Rukia elucidated.

"Good for the hospital then." Ichigo stated unmercifully, "I'll just cleanse the spirit tomorrow."

"Quit your bellyaching. You signed up for this job, so deal with it." Rukia commanded.

"Don't tell me what to do you midget!" Ichigo groused hot-headedly.

"Perhaps when you grow up, I won't tell you what to do, skyscraper!"

"Midget!"

"Skyscraper!"

"Midget!"

"Skyscraper!"

"Midget!"

"Skyscraper!"

"Mid-." Rukia's small smile stopped Ichigo mid-sentence as he stared at the shinigami-lady with a look of annoyance all over his features, "Tch. What are you smiling about?"

"Idiot." Rukia said while she and Ichigo neared Ichigo's home. "I suppose the time we've spent together means nothing to you then huh?"

"Hm. Makes no difference to me. Soon you'll get your powers back and then you'll be off back to the Soul Society, and outta my hair eternally," The aloof half-breed shinigami stated with an air of nonchalance as he saw his home come into view.

"You're a real smooth talker Ichigo," Rukia deadpanned. One could just sense the sarcasm and dry humour in her words.

"Whatever," Ichigo groused uncaringly, "I'll be down in five minutes. Then we'll head to Spirit Hunter."

Rukia smirked knowingly, "I know you will." Ichigo turned his head to glare at the black haired lady before she beautifully flipped up onto the balcony by Ichigo's window and landed in a kneeled position in all her elegance.

"Hmph. Show-off." Ichigo said while Rukia opened up the window and climbed into his bedroom. Ichigo strolled over to the door, reached into his pocket, yanked out his house keys from its confines, wedged the key in the key-hole, and opened up the door to the Kurosaki-clinic calmly, "I'm home."

Ichigo didn't flinch as Isshin flew at him and launched a round-house kick at his face. Instead the aloof young man stepped to the side, jerked his elbow up, and buried it into his father's temple with ferocity, causing Isshin to scream while he went stumbling to the floor.

"Is that anyway to treat your own son damn it?" Ichigo murmured with undying rage in his eyes.

Isshin hopped up to his feet to scowl at his son, "You were late! Do you know what day it is? Also, you are getting better my boy! You see how well my daily training sessions for you are doing!"

"What? You call attacking me outta the blue training! What kinda twisted logic is that retard!" Ichigo raged, pressing his forehead mightily against his father's.

"I'll have you know I'm an highly educated man my boy! I've gone through all of medical school to get to where I am!" Isshin argued in return, pushing Ichigo back.

"Educated my ass, I ought to shove my foot up your ass! How's that for education!"

"I like to see you try."

"Maybe I will!"

"Bring it!"

As the two fought for supremacy, rolling around the ground and creating a ball of dust old western-style, Karin calmly ate her dinner of Tonkatsu, a breaded deep-fried pork cutlet that Yuzu had made for them before they trip to Spirit Hunter, "They're at it again sis." Karin deadpanned to Yuzu who sighed after swallowing a piece of her dinner using her chopsticks to pick it up.

"Come on you two, Spirit Hunter's going to be on soon. You're both going to want to eat before that." Yuzu said.

Ichigo booted his father in his face and knocked him to the ground in a heap, "Yeah." Ichigo strode over to the stove and grabbed a plate near the sink. Ichigo served himself a couple of fried pork cutlets with lettuce from the oven dish and pot respectively.

"Did you know that Naru-kun's coming to Spirit Hunter as well onii-chan?" Yuzu asked enthusiastically.

"Hm."

"Is Naruto really gonna remember to show up?" Karin asked with a deadpan look written all over her features.

"Don't worry; I stuck a note on his back before Naru-kun left school." Yuzu said, smiling at her ingenious plan.

"On his back? Really? I stand by what I said. Do you really think he'll remember to show up?" Karin questioned without a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Well don't blame me. I tried to stick it on his tummy, but he said it'll just get ruined during his training." Yuzu pouted.

"Training for what?" Karin asked, "Training to learn how to stealthily take on the other idiots around town." Karin went on with sarcasm dipping into her voice. Ichigo was thinking this Naruto-boy sounded like a stupid incompetent child.

"Well the streets have become a lot less polluted since Naru-kun's been around." Yuzu summed up in Naruto's defence.

Ichigo rose an eyebrow, 'So, the kid's a delinquent.' If he turned out to be a bully, Ichigo would eradicate the boy, and assure one way or the other that his two cute little sisters stayed away from him, 'He sounds quite strong though.' A cocky grin threatened to spread itself across Ichigo's face. Ichigo's warrior spirit was invigorating him at the prospect of taking on someone worthy of fighting him.

Ichigo shook his head of such thoughts, 'Ugh. I've spent too much time fighting and purifying hollows with that damned midget.' The cranky one concluded his battle urges to his shinigami-powers coursing through his veins.

Damn it Rukia!

"Guess so." Karin said nonchalantly while Isshin sat next to Ichigo after serving himself a plate of Yuzu's cooking. Isshin patted Ichigo hard on his back, not getting so much of a flinch out of the stoic teenager.

"Eat up, my boy! We've got a fun night planned out." Isshin declared and Yuzu cheered.

"Hm." With that the Kurosaki family ate their dinner in peace and finished it within ten minutes. After Isshin had helped Yuzu finish clearing the table the two of them along with Karin prepared to leave the house to go to Spirit Hunter. The stoic orange haired teenager was still sat at the table with his hands near his mouth.

"I'll meet you there. I gotta get changed anyway," The aloof boy told his family.

"Oh. Okay, onii-chan." A dejected Yuzu accepted that. Ichigo was becoming more distant by the day, "Make sure you do okay."

"Hm." Ichigo hummed with a nod of his head.

"Good! Then we'll see you there Ichigo!" Isshin yelled cheerfully, Ichigo nodding along as he did so, "C'mon girls, we don't want to keep Naruto waiting!"

"If he even shows up," Karin said while tucking her hands into her green cargo jacket she threw on.

"I'm sure he will!" Yuzu said optimistically as the three ventured out of the house.

Ichigo stood up and made his way to his room located on the top floor of the house part of the clinic. He opened his door to his little room and traversed to his wardrobe and swung it open almost expectantly, seeing nothing but neatly folded up clothes on an equally folded blanket on the shelf of the wardrobe placed above the clothes rack.

"She must be outside." Ichigo muttered, taking out some clothes from the wardrobe. That blasted woman had been living within the confines of his wardrobe for the duration of her stay in the world of the living. But in the hindsight she wasn't too much trouble just annoying to be keeping around in his room.

"Oh nee-san. You have the elegant touch of an angel." A voice spoke dreamily. Ichigo shifted his head to the ground to see a light orange furred stuffed lion lying flat out on its side, "Stupid Ichigo disrespects you all the time. But fear not, Kon-sama will console you my dear nee-san!"

Ichigo treaded over to the stuffed animal, kicking it a couple of times that got it to wriggle in place. "Oh is that you nee-san! You've come back! I knew you would. Now lemme feel the soft comfort of your boobs." The stuffed animal rose its head up to (hopefully) get picked up into the warm embrace of his surrogate (self-proclaimed) nee-san Rukia, only to pale when it instead found Ichigo looking down at him in all his apathetical glory.

"Ichigo my man, what a nice surprise, I was just thinking about you." Kon squeaked. The name Kon was short for Kaizō Konpaku.

"Yeah I bet you were." Ichigo said sarcastically, "What are you doing Kon?" Ichigo asked the Modified soul whom he met when Rukia had gotten a pack of mod souls containing only him in it. He was lucky to be alive because the Project Spearhead which created the Mod souls decided to shut It down after it was deemed inhumane by the Soul Society.

All mod souls were meant to be wiped out but Kon made a lucky escape and hid out in Mr-hat-and-clogs' candy shop, in a storage room, inside a Soul Candy dispenser. The blond haired man placed the tainted dispenser in a box designated as "poor merchandise" and had intended to dispose of it, but never did, which winded up with a poor helper of his mistakably taking it out and giving it to Rukia when the woman came to purchase a packet of Soul Candy.

Ichigo thought his image at school was ruined since mod souls were designed to be put in dead bodies to help shinigami. In this case whenever Ichigo placed Kon's true form of a green pill inside of his mouth, his soul form would spout from his body while his physical body would remain in Kon's 'capable hands'.

Ichigo was just glad that Rukia was able to erase the memories of those that had experienced a run in with Kon, especially Orihime. The perverted artificially made soul touched his friend's breasts, and there was no way Ichigo was getting dubbed a pervert because of what some other guy did in his body.

It didn't count!

"Get out. I'll got to get changed." Ichigo told the mod soul as he picked him up by his spikes and held him up in the air.

"What? I don't wanna be used as a dress-up doll for your sister again!" Kon wailed.

"She's not here jackass." Ichigo groused.

"But what about when she gets back huh?" Kon asked stubbornly.

"Fine. I'll put you in the wardrobe while I get changed." Ichigo said and Kon was okay with that as Ichigo put him into the wardrobe.

After Ichigo had gotten dressed, he came out of his home dressed in a black dress shirt tucked into his black trousers and had the first three buttons of his shirt undone like how he wore his school shirt. A pair of sunglasses was on his eyes to go with his black headphones around his neck and shoes on his feet.

"Hey, let's go." Ichigo said to seemingly open air before Rukia elegantly dropped down from the rooftop as if she were a figure skater dressed in a baby blue dress with a bunny rabbit stitched into the corner and a pair of high-heels on her feet. Ichigo had gotten her those clothes with the money he'd earned from the part-time job he'd working as a security guard for a local lounge for college and high school students so Rukia would stop stealing Yuzu's clothes.

Chad also worked as a security guard there since both he and Ichigo were tall and imposing. Just at the sights of them would make most kids wary of starting trouble and the manager knew this well. It was why he hired them.

"It took you long enough." Rukia smirked, "And here I was beginning to think you'd chickened out from your duties as a shinigami Ichigo?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes, "Whatever."

With that the two ventured off to Spirit Hunter.

XxX

(Change of Scenery)

A couple were driving alongside the mountainside in a beautiful and expensive Toyota jeep.

"Hahaha! Hey, babe, you see the look on that man's face after I zoomed past him!" A man said to his girlfriend while driving his red Toyota jeep.

"Yeah I did! This ride's ridiculously fast! I love it baby!" The female replied to her boyfriend she met only today.

"Yeah. I know." The male smirked arrogantly, pulling out the cash from his pocket that made the woman gasp and smile at his coolness, "You wanna see me kick this thing up to high gear?" He asked and didn't wait for a response as he proceeded to push his foot down on the brake enhancing the acceleration of the jeep.

"I FOUGHT THE LAW, AND _I_ WON!"

"OHHH BABY, YOU'RE SO BAD!"

The man smoothly turned a corner beautifully after switching gears to do so, smiling satisfyingly at his work.

"OH SHIT! HOW COULD I FORGET I HAD TO BE AT SPIRIT HUNTER? YUZU-CHAN'S GONNA KILL ME! AND IF SHE DOESN'T KARIN WILL!"

"What was that?" The man asked.

"It sounds like someone's catching up to you baby," The female sulked with her arms crossed over her chest. Maybe this man wasn't as cool as she thought he was if some guy could catch up to him.

"No, babe, as if anyone could match my speed, I swear." The man assured her, not wanting to lose his catch for the night. The woman hummed along as if she was listening but the sweaty man knew she was losing interest.

He turned to growl at the window only for something to catch the corner of his eye. It appeared to be a big trail of dust. He looked at the girl to see her giving the 'dust trail' a dreamy look as she thought it was a vastly superior car being driven by someone of a higher status. The male sweated at this and shifted his head to drive the car again.

A gasp made him look at his 'girlfriend' again to see the horrified look on her face. He smirked, thinking that it was some fat ugly man she seen riding 'the speedy car' but as he turned his head to look at it he couldn't suppress his own shocked exhale at what he bore witness to…

…A speedy kid dashing past his jeep on all fours like a tiger.

…Out of this world.

The brakes were slammed on by the man's foot instantly, making the jeep come to an abrupt halt while the male and female both shivered resoundingly, and breathed in and out horrifyingly, the man summing up the words that they were both thinking.

"What. The. Fuck?"

XxX

(With Naruto)

The speedster thunderously sprinted on the road in desperation after his meeting with Yoruichi was concluded for the day at least.

It had taken a good five minutes for Yoruichi to drill the info into Naruto's thick skull that in all actuality she wasn't an old lady, just a lady with a ridiculous longevity being a warrior of a higher plateau to most humans. Naruto still thought that she was ashamed to think of herself as an old lady, and sought to rectify that by calling her Yoruichi-baachan, something that made her eye twitch every time.

But if she thought for a minute that Naruto was going to stop calling her grandma then she'd another thing coming, especially after she'd put on her clothes, more specifically that badass kimono top. Now it was solidified. The colour orange combined with the fact that she herself had cat-like features in her slits-like golden eyes, meant she was his Nidaime baa-chan (second grandma).

Children had two grandmas, right? So why can't Naruto?

Right now Naruto had to get to Spirit Hunter after being reminded about it by Yoruichi who pointed at the note on his back left there by Yuzu for the very reason he wouldn't forget to come tonight. He was running around like a headless chicken when he suddenly realized he'd no idea where he was going.

"Aw. I'm lost." Naruto moaned, stopping his pace to think long and hard where the location of the event was.

"Hello there." A voice spoke shyly, startling Naruto before he turned around to see a petite girl a little shorter than him and looking roughly his age of twelve. Her purple hair was tied in two pigtails with two red hair bobbles tied at the ends of them. A strand of her hair fell in between her soft dark eyes which depicted her docile nature to the blond boy, reminding him of a certain weird Hyuga girl. Two perpetual red shaped circles were on either side of her cheeks looking like two blushes. Her attire consisted of a white short-sleeved shirt with a strange shop logo printed on the front of it along with her white poke-dotted pink skirt which came down to her ankles and geta sandals on her feet.

"Howdy, funny girl! What are you doin' on the road?" Naruto asked with a friendly grin on his features, "What's your name?"

"I'm Ururu Tsumugiya." Ururu whispered.

"Naruto Uzumaki is at your service, pleased to meet ya Ururu!" Naruto shouted with a wide grin on his face and Ururu nodded her head meekly, 'Strange girl. But I kinda like her,' Naruto admitted in thought. "So you wouldn't happen to know where Spirit Hunter is by any chance 'would-cha?" Naruto asked with a sheepish grin on his features, creating a bridge with his index fingers at the purple haired girl.

A timid nod of the head came from the gentle girl, "Yes, I can show you if you want me to."

"Awesome! My luck never dies even when I know Cat-lady's identity, I love Yoruichi-baachan!" Naruto yelled. The girl simply turned around and shot down the road at 130 mph, shocking Naruto, "Whoa! She must have 'rerace-sue' or 're-act-ku' or whatever!" Naruto rumbled on while the dust flew in his face. "Oh hell no, if Ururu thinks for a second that she can beat Naruto Uzumaki in a race then she has another thing coming! Speedy Uzumaki away!" One had to love Speedy Gonzales, give it up for Speedy! That was what Naruto did as he flashed down the road and effortlessly caught up with Ururu before overtaking her resoundingly, much to her confusion because she thought she was leading him there not racing him there.

"Uhmm. You're getting ahead of me." Ururu Murmured.

XxX

(Up in the Sky)

"I swear that kid's an idiot." A red haired kid mumbled wearing a white t shirt with the same logo on the front of it as the young girl leading Naruto to Spirit Hunter, blue denim shorts reaching his knees, and geta sandals on his feet. His arms were folded behind his head as he watched the scene unfold on a magical flying red carpet with two men and Yoruichi in her human-like form.

"It seems like Yoruichi here has taken a liking to Uzumaki-san." An relaxed voice of a man stated easily, with his lean built body standing at 6'0 cm tall. A bucket-shaped green and white striped hat shrouded his bleached yellow hair and eyes, casting an eternal shadow over his eyes. His light green kimono jacket was held closed by a black obi around his wrist and was complemented by a pair of kimono pants and a darker green, white diamond-patterned haori over the kimono. The wooden sandals on his feet had gotten him a unique nickname from the new kid on the block, the bad-boy, Ichigo Kurosaki.

And a 'walking cane' was in his hand.

"Perhaps." Yoruichi answered cryptically, teasing her good friend Kisuke Urahara. Naruto's new 'grandmamma' had on a orange-coloured ninja jacket on over a sleeveless black top, a beige obi around her wrist, beige arm-warmers, beige leg warmers, tight jeans, and beige sandals on her feet. "Or perhaps you were interested in seeing Whiskers' skill set."

"Ahhhh. Yes. Isshin-kun phoned me earlier and told me he couldn't deny his daughter her right to bring her good friend to Spirit Hunter. Love works in fascinating ways," Kisuke sighed leisurely, making the red haired boy want to puke.

"Uzumaki-dono could become a formidable warrior if he learns to tame that massive reiryoku of his. Or chakra I should say," A huge bespectacled male stated. His hair was black and cornrowed with a long pony tail stretching past his neck. His skin was tanned and he wore a light blue muscle shirt underneath a green apron, blue jeans, and geta sandals on his feet. He also had a moustache, a pair of sideburns, and a golden watch on his wrist.

"That I believe you've hit the nail on the head Tessai my man." Kisuke Urahara agreed with his loyal friend and butler Tessai Tsukabishi.

"How does a puny kid like that have so much energy in him?" The red head boy uttered with his arms folded behind his head. He didn't even realize the irony of that statement since he was arguably shorter than Naruto.

"Aw, is shorty Jinta-kun jealous of Whiskers' power?" Yoruichi teased.

"What? No!" The now identified Jinta Hanakari shouted with a scowl on his face before crossing his arms over his chest, "I still can't believe you're a lady, I always thought you were a male with your voice lady." The haughty orphaned child like Ururu mumbled making Yoruichi's grin widen.

"Only time will tell though if Uzumaki-san chooses to use his power for the greater good." Kisuke's voice spared his adopted son the onslaught of his good friend's teasing. A sadistic grin grew on Kisuke's lips, "Now if the Soul Society gets wind of Naruto's reiatsu/chakra reserves…"

XxX

An bald old man with a white moustache and a long white beard wearing black robes with a obi around his waist, a white haori with a strange design on the back of it, and geta sandals on his feet was lying on his bed before his eyes suddenly popped open and his body jerked itself upwards. His hand moved toward the 'cane' by his bed as his feet brought him off of his bed and to a standing position with a look of intent on his face.

"I sense an unimaginable power somewhere in the world of the living. I bet that Kisuke is up to no good again. I'll have to burn all of them to ashes."

XxX

"Mommy," Kisuke squeaked quietly at his what-if thought. He would pay to not have to face the celestial being of all celestial beings. He was different class. Usually shinigami and their strengths were classed in the classification system. However, it simply didn't comply with the old man in Kisuke's daydream. His power was so far off of the charts, it simply couldn't be comprehended.

Kisuke shook his head at the nightmare.

"I do wonder though." Kisuke continued.

"About what?" Yoruichi asked.

"I wonder if Uzumaki-san would be interested in some fine merchandise. A fine growing boy like him seems in need of a good flying carpet. And where else better to get that then my humble little candy shop," Kisuke grinned goofily, his hand reaching into his jacket to pull out a fan which he used to hide his smile. Yoruichi rolled her eyes with a grin of her own at her friend.

"I'm sure Whiskers will just love to glide through the air."

And that would just be swimmingly for Kisuke.

Because he needed some money.

XxX

"_Good evening ladies and Gentlemen! This week's episode of Spirit Hunter is brought to you right here outside of an abandoned hospital in Karakura Town! Where the torture screams of the dead can be heard echoing through the night on this breezing night indeed! It's promises to be quite the show!"_

"_Who knows what horrifying events we'll see here tonight?!" _

"_And now folks, let give a warm welcome to this year's supreme specialist and massager from hell Don-Kanonji-sama himself!"_

Everyone, barring a few of the uninterested ones that only came with their family and friends, looked up rapidly, excitement on their faces as the sound of a jet reverberated through the air. The aloof orange haired youngster stood off on his own with his arms crossed over his chest while his father and two sisters watched in another section of the crowd, Isshin and Yuzu joining in on the excitement while Karin looked bored with her arms folded behind her head.

Chad was there with Mizuiro and Keigo, and Tatsuki had tagged along with her best friend Orihime.

"The spirits are always with you!" A man shouted energetically, leaping from the helicopter and basking in the cheers of the people he was defending. With his strange tower-shaped black hat on his head with a logo for SP engraved into it to go with his blue buttoned shirt and black jacket underneath a long black and red cape and black tight trousers he came dressed for action. The man was dark-skinned with dreads, a pair of sunglasses over his eyes and a moustache.

Not to mention he was stocked with bling.

"And how is everyone tonight? Hold onto your seats because it's time to get funky!" Everyone with the exception of Karin and Ichigo was cheering Kanonji's name as the man parachuted down from the sky, and touched the ground.

"_What do you think of this place Don-Kanonji-sama?"_

"The stench of the otherworld hangs in the air." Kanonji answered mysteriously, index finger hanging near his mouth, "I have to say that's-."

"…SMELLS LIKE BAD SPIRITS!" His fans finished off for him.

"Mwhahahahahahaha!" The fans mimicked Don-Kanonji's actions before the smoke screen came into effect and obstructed the audience's views of Kanonji.

"_And we'll cut to commercial break_."

XxX

'Man I hate stupid shows about spirits,' Ichigo thought with a look of annoyance on his face.

"Move along this way please. We're about to get started. Make your way to the purification location please." A man working for Spirit Hunter ushered the audience along. As Ichigo walked with his much needed personal space, he found it violated by the sweet orange burnt haired girl who came running up to him.

"Kurosaki-kun," Orihime said with worry on her face. She chose to wear an unbuttoned dark purple coloured dress shirt underneath a light purple jumper with her sleeves rolled up, the edges of her shirt and collar was sticking out of the bottom and top parts of the jumper respectively. A silvery skirt with kanji-markings on the side of the skirt and a pair of sneakers finished off Orihime's attire for the night.

"I wanted to apologize for today," Orihime said.

"Why is that?" Ichigo asked.

"It's just that Tatsuki-chan told me you hated shows like these and I had no idea." The usual chirpy girl said.

"Hm. It's cool." The aloof hazel eyed boy shrugged it off indifferently, looking at Mizuiro and Keigo off in the corner doing the annual laugh with their arms crossed over their chests, "Look at them. They know it drives me insane but they do it anyway." Ichigo ended with a sweat-drop falling off of his head.

Orihime giggled softly, "But you still showed up. Why is that?"

"Oh." Ichigo pointed at his sister and father, causing Orihime to look at them curiously, "Well my old man and sister go outta their minds for this thing."

"Mwhahahahaha!" Yuzu and Isshin laughed simultaneously, Karin looking at them tentatively with her hands tucked into her pockets.

"And that's why you're here?" Orihime guessed.

"Guess so, I couldn't just let them come alone." Ichigo said.

"Wow, Kurosaki-kun. You've got such a kind heart." Orihime praised him with a smile.

"Huh? Isn't that natural?" Ichigo asked while Yuzu stopped laughing and switched to looking around the area worriedly.

"What? Oh, yeah! It's natural. It's very natural, indeed it is." Orihime smiled before noticing Yuzu's look of concern, "How come your sister looks so sad."

"Huh?" Ichigo looked at Yuzu, "Meh. Probably just wondering when her friend is going to arrive. The kid supposedly forgets a lot according to Yuzu and Karin." Ichigo informed her, Orihime nodding as a smile quickly found its way to Yuzu's face.

"YAY! MEDACHITAGARIYA DE IGAISEI NANBA WAN NO DOTABATA (THE SHOW-OFF, NUMBER ONE MOST UNPREDICTABLE, NOISY NINJA) NARUTO UZUMAKI IS LATE FOR THE SHOW BUT NEVER NOT READY TO GO, DATTEBAYO!"

"…Ugh. That must be him. Could he be any less quiet?" Ichigo asked sarcastically, cleaning his ear out as Orihime nodded in agreement after wincing from the sound of Naruto's voice.

"Naru-kun!"

"YAY, YUZU-CHAN! SORRY ABOUT BEING LATE! I GOT… LOST ON THE ROAD TO LIFE!" Somewhere in Konoha Kakashi for having himself a little pray that someone had joined his way of fibbing his way out of troublesome situations.

"Whoa, dude! That kid's a loud one!" Keigo yelled.

"Ain't that a kettle calling the pot black moment Asano-san." Mizuiro said in an attempt to patronize his friend.

"Dude!"

Yuzu ran over to Naruto and the blond met her half-way, enjoying the warmth of an embrace as Yuzu hugged him contently, "I should've known you'd forget even if I did leave a note on you. You almost missed out on the fun but you managed to make it here in time."

"Yeah!" Naruto grinned, letting go of Yuzu with the girl holding onto his hands, refusing to break the connection between them, "This girl shown me the way," Naruto looked at either sides of him absently to find she wasn't there. "Huh? She was just here a minute ago, oh well." She was probably just upset since Naruto ended up outpacing her four times until he finally got it into his head that she was leading him there, not racing him there.

Yuzu nodded her head and looked to see her brother standing with a gorgeous orange haired girl, "Come on, my onii-chan's just over there."

"Alrighty! Ready or not here I come." Naruto declared as Yuzu let go of his left hand and led him to her brother where the boy was simply taken aback by the awesomeness of the tall boy and girl with the big boobs.

"Onii-chan, this is Naruto Uzumaki. Naru-kun, this is my onii-chan Ichigo Kurosaki." Yuzu introduced the two with Orihime looking at the duo as if she were hypostasised on the spot. They looked so cute and adorable together it was untrue.

"Hmph. Hey," Ichigo said lackadaisically, not getting a response from Naruto while Ichigo's eyes were anywhere but his sister and her friend, "Hey! I said hey! The least you could do is answer me outta proper courtesy you little br-." Ichigo halted his sentence as he looked at Naruto to see the awestruck look and stars in the boy's eyes, "C'mon! What's with that look?"

"Your hairs." The orange clad boy muttered, pointing a finger at Orihime and Ichigo who both had confused expressions on their faces.

"What about my hair or hers?" Ichigo questioned.

"They're orange…" Naruto whispered, shaking at the sheer awesomeness of the situation. Orihime and Ichigo looked at each other and blinked before turning back to Naruto.

"Well, yeah, it's our natural colours after all Uzumaki-san. Though, Kurosaki-kun's is noticeably lighter than mine." Orihime explained in an adorable informative way, holding up her index finger.

"Badass!" Orihime and Ichigo blinked with strange looks on their faces, not expecting that kind of reaction from the little boy, though Orihime thought it was kind of nice for someone to compliment the colour of her hair for once rather than ridicule her for it. Good thing good old Tatsuki beat up anyone who dared to mock her and her hair. Her sisterly figure was the reason why she even grew her hair so long in the first place.

"Orange is Naru-kun's favourite colour," Yuzu explained for the two orange haired teens' benefits.

"Oh. Okay." Ichigo said.

"Whoa. I never heard someone say that they like my hair before except for Tatsuki-chan. It's feels kind of refreshing." The bubbly girl told the younger kids.

"Really?" Naruto was shocked at that. "Guess haters gotta hate then. I think yours and Strawberry's hairs are awesome!" Yuzu flinched and grinned tentatively while Ichigo glared darkly at the blond fishcake who had the audacity to call him _that _damned fruit. His name meant number one damn it! Not _strawberry!_

"Don't call me that, _fishcake_." Ichigo warned beastly.

"What's so bad about that? I mean your name means strawberry?" Naruto asked ignorantly, squinting and bristling at the meaning of his own name. He soon found out why not as a fist met his whisker-marked face, knocking him to the ground with so much force the young boy cracked it with his face. Orihime and Yuzu let out gasps from their mouths at Ichigo's brutality on Naruto while the orange haired teenager in question had his fist clenched and held outwards from the punch he delivered to Naruto's face looking cranky.

"Ouch! What was that for, you douchebag?" Naruto asked heatedly, turning around while lying on the ground and holding his cheek which now sported a red bruise.

"Stay away from me." Ichigo commanded unmercifully, an icily cold tone in his voice that had Naruto glaring at him.

Yuzu sighed as she bent down and put her hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Are you okay, Naru-kun?" Naruto only growled at the orange haired douchebag responsible for striking him down like it was an easy thing to do. Yuzu turned her head and glared at her big brother, "Onii-chan! There's no need to be so mean to Naru-kun! He didn't mean any harm!"

Sure Naruto could be a little overbearing but still that wasn't any reason to punch him to the ground.

"Whatever." Ichigo kissed his teeth, pivoting on his heels, and walking away, Orihime watching him go off on his own.

"He's a jerk." Naruto mumbled, wincing at the bruise on his cheek.

"He can be a little aggressive at times but Kurosaki-kun has a kind heart deep down." Orihime said in Ichigo's defence with Naruto and Yuzu looking at each other and then back at the orange burnt haired girl curiously.

"Are you one of onii-chan's school friends?" Yuzu asked.

"Oh yes! I'm Orihime inoue! Kurosaki-kun has been really nice and gentle to me. Whenever I'm around him I just get this sense of protection ya know," Orihime laughed cheerfully, it really felt like she was talking out of her heart instead of her brain. Yuzu could see this as she stared at the orange burnt haired girl as if she was only now seeing her for the first time.

Even Naruto could tell Orihime was fond of Ichigo and felt a little bad for calling the boy a jerk in front of her and Ichigo's little sister.

"Well Orihime-san, I'm Yuzu Kurosaki, Ichigo's little sister." Yuzu smiled.

"Oh! I'm glad I could meet you Yuzu-san." Orihime chirped and Yuzu agreed with a smile on her face.

"Hey, Orihime! Come on already, I'm going to head up without you otherwise!" Tatsuki shouted.

"Oh! I'm coming Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime assured her friend loudly, turning one last time to the kids, "Well it was nice meeting you two, Uzumaki-san, Yuzu-san. I hope our next meeting will be a lot more pleasant."

"Likewise." Naruto agreed and Orihime ran off to her friend. "Ouchy. I didn't know Ichigo could hit so hard, dattebayo!" His bruise still hadn't healed itself yet. Damn fuzz butt! The devilish being of chakra and malevolence was probably laughing at him, calling him pathetic and that Naruto could not do anything without its chakra and power.

"**You're damn right you can't. You're so weak. This is an insult to my power and greatness to be sealed inside of a pathetic brat like you."** The deep demonic-like voice of the Kyuubi no Yoko growled inside of Naruto's head.

'SHUT UP, FUZZY BUTT!' Naruto shouted internally, 'I don't need your stupid chakra! I can be strong in my own right!'

Kyuubi chuckled as if Naruto had said the most funniest joke in the world, "**Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! As such, when a weak little human is in denial he'll show his desperation by declaring that he doesn't need the powers of a biju. You make me laugh. Your strength is nothing to that boy who just one-bombed you down. He's at least as powerful as that scarecrow of a sensei of yours." **

'Ichigo-teme's as strong as Kakashi-sensei? No way! You must be lying.' Naruto thought.

"**I don't kid about strength levels boy," **Kyuubi told him especially since it could just practically bask in the negative energy and malevolence of Ichigo whether the boy meant to be oozing that much off of himself or not. He had something inside of himself that was fiendish to the highest calibre. Not on Kyuubi's level of course since no one can match Kyuubi wherever it goes, but still pretty impressive.

Naruto gulped. Ichigo sounded like a man he wouldn't want to mess with anymore.

Yuzu opened up her handbag and took out a napkin from it before placing it on Naruto's cheek, holding it there with both of her hands, "Sorry about onii-chan. He's not exactly the most lax brother on the planet."

"Oh it's okay. I might've pushed it too far, hehe." Naruto chuckled sheepishly, "I'll probably just forget about it anyway." It was like he always did.

"Naruto." Naruto looked to see Karin walking over to him and Yuzu.

"Sup, Karin?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing. I wouldn't say the same for you though. You and Ichi-nii didn't exactly have the most casual of turnouts." Karin said dryly.

"Haha! Yeah I guess so." Naruto chortled as Isshin walked over to them.

"Naruto, my boy, I'm glad you could make it!" Isshin laughed loudly.

"Yeah old man, it seems pretty fun!" Naruto grinned widely.

Isshin crossed his arms over his chest which got his daughter Yuzu to mimic his actions, "Then c'mon and join in with us my boy, 'mwhahahahaha'!"

"'Mwhahahahaha'!" Yuzu laughed on her knees next to Naruto.

"Yeah! Hahahahaha!" Naruto chuckled, wriggling his fingers as if he were playing a piano. Karin witnessed the three goof around as if she was the only normal one there.

XxX

"Stupid kid." Ichigo groused with his arms folded over his chest grumpily, "They get cheekier every year they step into middle school I swear." Oh well, at least he showed him whose was boss between the two, it was _him, _Ichigo Kurosaki.

"Hey, Ichigo, what's with that face?" Ichigo looked over his shoulder to see Rukia doing that laugh he despised with a passion.

"You too?" Ichigo asked angrily.

"Oh lighten up, Ichigo. Between all of your school work and shinigami assignments you must be stressed out of your mind." A mocking expression enveloped Rukia's features, "I saw what you did to that blond haired kid back there. I didn't know you were becoming a child beater, Ichigo." Rukia smirked.

"I'm not!" He had too much pride for that. "The kid got what was coming to him." The blond-brat would get more to if he even so much of put a hand on Ichigo's precious little sisters. For now, though, Ichigo would be a little lenient with the boy since Naruto and Ichigo's sisters were only friends, but anything more than that meant bad news for Naruto.

"So what makes you think the hollow'll be here?" Ichigo groused as he stared up at the old abandoned hospital.

"What are you getting at?" Rukia asked with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Shouldn't a shinigami had passed it on by now," Ichigo said, hands going into his pockets.

"Not necessarily." Rukia shrugged, "Jibakurei spirits are often tied to places like this one. Jibakurei spirits dwell within the earth itself so it's very rare for shinigamis to pinpoint their locations." Rukia explained as the cameraman began walking over to the hospital to set up the camera, "There's only one reason why a Jibakurei spirit would reveal itself."

At this moment the man stepped into the radius of the Jibakurei spirit, making a cry of despair and regret echo through the air not heard by those who weren't spiritually aware enough.

"When it notices humans have entered its territory…"

The roar rippled through the air thunderously, startling Naruto and Karin.

"What's that noise?" Naruto asked curiously where he was standing with Yuzu, Isshin, and Karin.

"What noise Naru-kun?" Yuzu questioned.

Naruto closed his eyes and listened carefully to the painful roar reverberate through the air, "It's sounds like someone's in pain."

"Maybe it's just your mind playing tricks on you my boy!" Isshin dished Naruto his innuendo.

"_AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"_

"I don't think so." Naruto said with his eyes squinting and Yuzu looking at him with concern on her pretty face. Isshin was uncharacteristically quiet with a serious look on his face while Karin held her head with her hands with a panicked expression on her face.

Naruto looked at the fear-struck Karin, remembering how she could see spirits perfectly, 'She must've heard it too…'

"_AAAAAAHHHH!"_

Chad's normally perpetually closed eyes opened wide at the bloodcurdling scream, "You guys hear that?"

Keigo looked at Chad with a tentative smile on his face, "C'mon dude don't do that to us. There's nothing."

"It's probably just your imagination." Mizuiro said.

"_AAAAAHHHHHHH!" _

"Yeah… my imagination." Chad murmured wryly.

Orihime and Tatsuki shared looks of concern while Rukia elucidated to Ichigo what the noise was, "That's the cry of a Jibakurei spirit makes when a human has penetrated its territory. So at least that's verification for the Jibakurei spirit's stay here."

"How do you know that's not a regular hollow?" Ichigo asked.

"Generally humans become hollows within moments after getting their chains of fate severed or devoured by other hollows. These ones linger around their most cherish places and are on the verge of becoming a hollow, a demi-hollow," Rukia explained. Ichigo watched as the Jibakurei spirit emerged in the form of a man with brown hair styled in a 1950's pompadour style.

The thing that caught Naruto and Ichigo's attentions was the chains attached to his arms and were connected to the hospital as if the man could not leave the hospital for nothing. And a hook-like chain was hanging from the golf hole where his heart should be. He was definitely different from the usual spirits Ichigo and Naruto see on their walks to school. And he babbled incoherently a lot.

"Yeah, well, he sure feels like a hollow to me." Ichigo muttered, "Except he's not wearing one of those white masks. And the hole in his chest hasn't opened up yet."

"The hole in a hollow's chest represents the loss of a heart leaving nothing but pure instinct. The white skull shaped mask is the only thing that shields those raw instincts from the world, neither is necessary If the heart is until intact. Upon death the chain of fate is severed from the body. Usually the spirit waits for a shinigami's guidance, but if they have regrets in this world they become bound to the source of their pain."

"So that means this demi hollow's heart is chained to the hospital…" Rukia stated.

"_THIS HOSPITAL BELONGS TO ME! AND I'M NOT GIVING IT UP FOR NO ONE YOU HEAR ME__!" _The demi hollow shouted.

"Whatever he is, he sure sounds like a dumbass." Ichigo grumbled crudely with Rukia smiling slyly.

"_And we'll back live_!"

"Oh I think they're starting again." Rukia chirped as Don-Kanonji took centre stage.

"The spirits are always with you!" Don Kanonji declared, "Mwhahahahahaha!"

"Mwhahahahaha!" Even Rukia was joining along with the group of sheep following Don-Kanonji.

"Hey, knock it off damn it!" Ichigo roared.

Rukia turned to him with a calm reassuringly smile on her face, "Don't worry, it takes months for a demi-hollow to transform into a hollow."

"_Now then it's time for Don-Kanonji-sama to take the stage."_

"_You can just feel the excitement pouring through your veins!"_

"We don't want the spirit to become agitated with this many people around. We'll do the Konso after the show's over." Rukia informed him.

"Yeah but…"

"Spirits usually go through so much pain when they transform they fill the night with so much screaming. I mean does it look like that demi hollow's in pain to you?" Rukia joked.

"_AND WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, COMING INTO MY HOSPITAL! YOU GOT SOME NERVE BUDDY! AND WHAT'S WITH THAT STRANGE POINTY HAT?" _The spirit yelled at Don-Kanonji who was looking at it in fascination while rubbing his chin.

"My guess is no," Ichigo almost wanted to laugh at the scene as he had his hands on his hips while sweat-dropping along with Rukia.

"There. You see. As long as no one messes with the hole in his chest he's still got another six months before he transforms." Rukia smiled but soon widened her eyes once Don-Kanonji did the most destructive thing he could do to the demi-hollow, and that was grabbing his staff and sticking it into the hole.

The demi-hollow let out a loud painful scream as Don-Kanonji grinded his staff inside of his hole.

"Yeah! Be gone bad spirit! Be gone with the power of youth!" Don-Kanonji yelled.

"_WHOA! Don Kanonji-sama has unleashed his signature poke thrust!"_

"What the hell is he doing?" Ichigo shouted heatedly.

"That fool! He's just speeding up the process of the transformation!" Rukia shouted.

The noise of someone getting tortured was too much to take for Orihime and Karin who both covered their ears with panicked expressions written all over their faces.

"Hey that bastard's hurting him!" Naruto raged.

Yuzu blinked, "What do you mean Naru-kun. He's banishing the bad spirits like he's supposed to."

Naruto looked at Yuzu defiantly, "That guy spirit's not that bad Yuzu-chan. And right now Dreads over there is giving him a world of pain!" Yuzu gasped at this. She was sure Naruto wouldn't lie to her. So if he said something he damn well meant it.

Naruto looked at Isshin, pointing at the screaming hollow, "Old man can't you see that? We'll gotta help him!"

"Hmm. Sometimes things are outta your hands my boy. You must often times let situations handle themselves! Besides, Don-Kanonji's an expert. He'll know what to do. I mean c'mon, 'mwahahahahaha'! How can that not instil confidence in you Naruto-kun?" Isshin babbled on cryptically, getting Yuzu to smile as she watched her daddy do the annual laugh of the show. She would've copied him if she didn't see Karin holding her ears with an uncomfortable expression on her face.

"What's wrong with Karin-chan?" Yuzu asked worriedly.

Naruto looked at Karin before looking back at Isshin who had his arms folded over his chest, "I don't believe you old man! You know what? If you won't help that guy, then I will dattebayo!" And he would've as he quickly turned around to run up to Don-Kanonji and personally deliver an Uzumaki Rendan to his head if his shoulder didn't feel like it was getting hugged.

It didn't take long before a nerve was massaged that forced Naruto off to sleep-land and out of the action. The blond bundle of joy fell to the ground in an unconscious heap!

"Oh no, Naru-kun!" Yuzu shouted, dropping to her knees and placing a hand on Naruto's head, "What happened? He just fell asleep."

Karin took her hands off of her ears but quickly winced from the horrifying cry of the spirit thunderously echoing through the air, "Old man did you kn-."

"Oops! He must've fainted from the excitement! I wouldn't blame him. This year's Spirit Hunter is a doozy!" Karin rolled her eyes at him but didn't pry into the matter anymore than that. Isshin stared down at Naruto's unconscious body while his daughter fretted over him coolly, 'Sorry, Naruto. You'll have to take that for the team. I couldn't risk Yuzu and Karin discovering this world's full of supernatural beings.'

The evening wasn't so bad at all. Naruto managed to avoid meeting Rukia, so her superiors should see no need to usher overwhelmingly powerful beings to the world of the living to take little old her when the time came to it. Sure he had some… less than nice interaction with his son Ichigo, but that could be summed up to something as trivial as a passing civilian asking for the time off of another one.

Right now Isshin was curious how his boy Ichigo would handle this predicament. The orange haired teenager was dashing to the stage as quickly as possible. The security were bound to stop him momentarily before he was released from his body, then Isshin would see what his son was truly made out of.

* * *

**And that's the end of that chapter. On to Uryu's appearance next chapter. Stay tune.**


	3. Best Bring Your A-Game to the Party

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Naruto**

* * *

**Chapter Three **

**Best Bring Your A-Game to the Party**

The pleasant noises of snoring could be heard coming from an apartment room located on the top floor of a four story high hostel building. The last one the rowdy one had lived in was noticeably smaller than his one as of now, and was fit for all kinds of hoodlums, thugs, and prison released criminals. Unlike his hostel/apartment room the speedster had now, he didn't have his own bathroom or kitchen/living room back then. He had to share with the majority of the other residents living within his old hostel.

One could only imagine how that went. Especially when those douchebags had the audacity to rob his instant ramen cups he kept in the cupboard. At first he thought he'd just forgotten to buy some since he didn't feel up to beating any heads together in his place of living in case the manager opted to throw him out if he hurt anyone badly enough.

But the moment the orange-clad ninja found his door to his bedroom booted open and his money along with his secret stash of instant ramen cups he kept underneath his bed after a couple got nicked from the kitchen, all bets were off.

Naruto went absolutely crazy that day, and completely annihilated anyone who got in his way! Even the security guards couldn't deal with an out of control Naruto on a rampage to find the one who'd stolen his money and most of his ramen. The manager was shocked and terrified that one little boy could do so much damage to a bunch of kids and adults twice his age and triple his height.

He undoubtedly wanted Naruto gone, but Naruto wasn't leaving until he got his ramen and money back. It could've been a real messy situation if Naruto's care-worker hadn't sped down there from her home and offered an alternative for both sides. The manager could offer Naruto a reference to help him move on to a better place or she (Naruto's care-worker) could report him and his building to the health inspectors.

For the manager, it wasn't a hard decision to make.

He chose number two without being prompted any more than that.

And that was how Naruto ended up with this place.

It wasn't bad. And that was the humble way of putting it. He had his own living room and the kitchen was a part of the living room like the Kurosaki's home of living. It was very well furnished with brown wooden tiled flooring and neatly painted walls coloured white. He had one two piece black sofa and a built-in electric oven.

How old man Isshin thought he could burn down his apartment was beyond him.

Everything was electrical, to the lights, to the heating, and to the oven… everything. There wasn't a single thing in Naruto's apartment that was gas-powered. It made things easier for him when it came to topping up his electric meter he topped up weekly. He also had a television licence which he chose to pay weekly too.

He did some odd jobs around town like mowing people's gardens or transforming himself into an adult to work in a fast food restaurant. Money was tight but Naruto would always find some way to get by, little by little.

A stinging noise of a buzzer was heard through the oddly cleaned apartment of Naruto, which was quickly followed by a heavy doorknob being pulled down as if a safe door had opened.

"Phew. This door is quite heavy."

Yuzu's voice was heard sighing slightly before a little thud came from the direction of Naruto's small porch. It probably meant she'd taken off her sandals before gently opening the door to the orange clad ninja kid's room, letting the light from the porch penetrate the darkness of Naruto's room.

"Naru-kun, are you awake yet?" Yuzu asked.

"Mmmm." Naruto said quietly, turning away from Yuzu's direction with the covers held firmly over his head.

Yuzu put her hands on her hips, "Come on Naru-kun, you can't asleep all day." Yuzu jogged on over to the window and opened up the blinds, lighting up Naruto's room and making him squirm from underneath the covers, "Look how bright and sunny it is outside."

"No. I don't wanna go to school today."

"Is that why you won't wake up?" Yuzu shook her head at her own rhetorical question as she walked over to Naruto and grabbed the sheets on his bed, trying to pull them off of him but the stubborn boy wouldn't let go, "School's not even open today. The teachers have training day." Yuzu told him through the strain of attempting to pry the sheets off of the lazy boy.

At this, Naruto stopped struggling, which caused Yuzu to momentarily wobble backward while waving her arms around as if she was going to fall over before she managed to regain her balance. The girl sat on his bed as Naruto turned around and pulled his blanket off of his head to reveal his messy golden locks and a tired look on his face

"No school?" Naruto mumbled, wanting to fall back down on his bed again. What the heck happened last night? One minute he was seeing a spirit and the next his eyes became heavy before everything blacked out.

His dearest friend's lips curved outward from each other into a smile of brightness, "Yep. That's why I thought we could do something together."

"Like what?"

"Maybe we could go to the pictures or the fun fair."

"Oooooooo! There's this kickass film I've been dying to see. Let's see that!"

"Okay, the pictures it is then."

"YAY!" Naruto cheered, swinging his arms in the air while Yuzu hopped to her feet.

"I'll go make your breakfast while you have a wash." Yuzu offered.

"Alrighty, sounds like a plan Yuzu-chan." Naruto said with his arms folded behind his head in a relaxed manner, "Man the last twenty four hours have felt like a blur to me! I don't even remember how I got home last night either!"

An apologetic look came over Yuzu's cute face, "I'm sorry that Spirit Hunter wasn't the best experience for you."

"Huh? Why are you apologizing for, Yuzu-chan?" Naruto asked, blinking his eyes at the girl.

Yuzu opened her mouth to explain but looking into Naruto's curious-filled eyes which radiated chirpiness stopped any explanation the girl would've given her friend. Instead she offered him a smile, "Oh. Never mind. I just wanted the experience for you to be even better."

Naruto squinted his eyes at her, "Hmmmm. Alright then." Yuzu nodded her head with a sigh escaping her lips. Spirit Hunter wasn't exactly at its best like it usually was. Everything seemed to get out of hand with her brother charging forward at Don-Kanonji like a madman on drugs with one of his school friends before Don-Kanonji was tackled by a strange blur that oddly resembled Yuzu's brother in some ways. Eventually the controversy was settled and Don-Kanonji was able to 'send' the spirit over to the other side.

Naruto didn't need to be reminded of that. Especially considering the fact that he got knocked to the floor by Ichigo before he 'fainted' shortly afterwards. Karin still had the feeling her father may've done it for one reason or the next.

"Hey, Yuzu-chan?"

"Yeah Naru-kun."

"How'd you manage to get into my apartment? Did you break in?" The forgetful one asked.

Yuzu sighed as she held her right hand up and showed him a set of keys with a rainbow-key ring attached to it. Naruto could also see a small medal-shaped blue-coloured circle on Yuzu's keys as if it were a key-ring. "You gave me a spare key to your apartment in case you ever locked yourself out." Yuzu reminded a bashful Naruto.

"Oh. I forgot." Naruto grinned. He had been given two spare keys to go with his first one by the manager of the place in case he ever lost one and needed another, and he couldn't think of anyone else other than Yuzu-chan to hold one of his spare keys.

Yuzu sighed and ushered Naruto off to the shower. Naruto spotted her handbag and a carrier bag as he stepped into his porch to go into his shower. He really hoped Yuzu hadn't brought him any breakfast. He loved her cooking wholeheartedly; it was just that he'd something else he wanted to have for breakfast instead of Yuzu's cooking.

The sound of running water splashing on the surface of the shower area could be heard from the direction of the bathroom after Naruto had jumped into the shower to wash himself spotless. While he was tasked with rinsing and scrubbing all of the sweat and dirt off of himself, Yuzu was in the kitchen frowning at the amount of instant ramen cups Naruto had stacked up on the sides and just about anywhere they took lean on.

"…I should've put these away yesterday when I came around with daddy to drop Naru-kun off." Yuzu sighed, picking up one of the many instant ramen cups, "Naru-kun needs to learn ramen isn't good for him to be eating every day." Yuzu let out another sigh as she reached for the handle of Naruto's cupboard, gripping them, and swinging them open before her eyes widened in horror.

"…Okay. Naru-kun _really _needs to cut down on the ramen." A huge wave of instant ramen cups poured out of the cupboard and tackled a screaming Yuzu to the floor, burying her in its endless masses of shortening goodness.

A clicking noise echoed through the apartment to signal the opening of the bathroom door. A thoroughly drenched Naruto with an orange towel wrapped around his waist came storming through the door of the kitchen/living room with urgency in his eyes, stream following him from the direction of the shower, "Yuzu-chan! What's wro-." Of course he was soaking wet, and when one's feet was covered in water combined with the fact one's flooring was of a smooth surface it was always going to be difficult to sustain one's balance.

Naruto's left leg came upward as if he was kicking a ball before his momentum carried him backward like he was attempting an overhead kick. His head crashed with the unforgiving floor of his tiled flooring, his legs hanging aimlessly in the air while a puddle appeared on the floor.

"Ouch…" Naruto groaned, sitting up and massaging his head while seeing stars hovering around his head, "That hurt. Whoever invented the reason why people trip over so easily needs to rethink his idea, dattebayo," The clumsy boy dazedly muttered. He shook off the cobwebs as he remembered why he rushed out of his shower in the first place without switching it off.

"Now where's Yuzu-chan?" Naruto wondered, looking around and spotting a pile of his precious ramen piled up in the shape of a mountain, "Ramen!" Naruto squeaked, jumping up and making sure his towel was still around his waist before walking over to his ramen, "Who defiled my ramen!" Admittedly, it was badass the way it was stacked up. It was almost enough to make Naruto want to climb it and yell loudly that he was king of this pile!

"Hehe!" Naruto laughed at the thought as he picked up one of the many instant ramen cups piled up on the floor, "I think I'm gonna have one now," And he would've began to make it if he didn't catch the muffled sounds of someone screaming. "What's that?" Naruto looked at the ramen, seeing nothing until his eyes travelled down it and saw small parts of it rumbling like his belly would do when he was hungry for ramen.

No pun intended.

He then remembered Yuzu's screaming and what felt like a ton of bricks falling onto the floor from the bathroom. After putting two and two together, his eyes widened, "YUZU-CHAN'S IN HERE!" Naruto anchored himself to his knees and recklessly thrown a good portion of his instant ramen cups all over the place after hugging the pile like a bear.

He pinpointed Yuzu's location from a loud exhale. He visibly sighed in relief as the girl inhaled and exhaled intensely, her complexion returning to its normal light skinned one after darkening to purple, "There you are Yuzu-chan!" Naruto grinned, pulling Yuzu out of the pile.

"Phew. That was a close one." Yuzu breathed out with her hand on her heart. She then affixed Naruto with a glare that made him gulp. Since when could his precious friend glare at him like that? Him?! He was her lovable friend! She couldn't glare at him! That was Karin's job! She was the unmerciful one like that douchebag with the cool hair.

Wait? Those words seemed to switch something in Naruto's head. It was like he felt he'd a score to settle with someone who had cool hair. Where'd it come from? Oh well. It was probably nothing! Either way, Yuzu-chan was meant to have leniency with him. That was how it always was with Naruto and the Kurosaki twins.

"You really need to cut back on the ramen Naru-kun." Yuzu recommended, "Or at least stack them away neatly so it doesn't fall on your guests or you when someone goes in your cupboard in an attempt to stash it away for you."

Naruto grinned apologetically, "My bad Yuzu-chan. I wasn't thinking y'know!"

"…Of course you wasn't." Yuzu said with a long, deep, and visible exhale coming from her lips. When'd Naruto ever think? He was a boy of action not of deep thinking. And that suited Fuzzy-Butt locked within his gut just fine. It didn't need to hear Naruto's internal rambling anyway.

"You'd better get back in the shower, the stream's coming out." Yuzu advised him while the stream from the shower obstructed the kitchen/living room.

Naruto grinned widely, jumping to his feet with his hands held on his towel to keep it in place, "Alrighty! But what about all of my instant ramen cups? Who's gonna clean 'em up?"

"I'll clean them up for you and neatly stack them inside of the cupboard." Yuzu said as she stood up.

"Alrighty! Thanks Yuzu-chan!"

"You're welcome Naru-kun."

For the next thirty minutes, Naruto showered while Yuzu elegantly piled up his instant ramen cups inside of the wardrobe so they wouldn't wind up falling on her again and ironed out some clothes for him to wear. She had completed those two tasks within twenty minutes, and used the last ten minutes of Naruto's shower time to prepare his breakfast. She had left on the boiling hot water before she started putting away his instant ramen cups so it was already boiling the time she got around to making Naruto his early meal.

The time Naruto walked out of his room wearing a pair of blue cargo trousers with orange strips running down the sides of it to match his customized long-sleeved orange jumper with the words 'The Hyperactive Knucklehead' neatly stitched into the jumper and his necklace underneath his jumper, his breakfast was already made for him.

"I got your breakfast here for you, Naru-kun." Yuzu smiled happily, pointing to the black hued round coffee table in front of his sofa.

A frown came over Naruto's whiskered-features as Yuzu ushered him over to the sofa where he sat down and stared at the stream coming off of his breakfast of light cooked toast, beans, two boiled eggs, and a carton of apple juice, "It's not ramen."

This time it was Yuzu's turn to frown as she placed her hands on her hips, "You've been eating too much ramen Naru-kun. It's not healthy for you." Naruto's eyes squinted to add to his look of disproven, "Where'd you even get so much ramen from anyway, Naru-kun? You can't possibly make that much money."

A shit-eating grin spread itself across Naruto's face as he looked at Yuzu, "Well that's easy, Yuzu-chan! I won a contest for a year's supply of ramen!"

Yuzu blinked her eyes and tilted her head to the side, "A contest?" Naruto nodded his head in affirmation, "What kind of contest was it that you won to get all of these unhealthy snacks, Naru-kun?"

"It was a phone call contest!"

"A phone call contest?"

"Hell yeah! The first one to submit fifty calls to the ramen industry gets a year's supply of ramen for free!" Naruto reminisced with a smile. All hell broke loose a week ago when Naruto first saw that commercial advertised on TV. He immensely abused his bread-and-butter technique and created a mass amount of clones that swarmed around the city in search of different phone booths to ring the company dedicated to making his favourite treat. Some even jacked phones off of the civilians of Karakura Town to dial the number of watery-flavoured goodness, temporarily of course.

Because Naruto wasn't a thief but that subjective was of a high significance. It was as if he was taking a top S-rank mission of great importance. He couldn't fail it and he didn't. And the reward for his valiant efforts was in abundance of watery flavoured deliciousness.

"I've already eaten 40 cups of instant ramen and still have loads to spare!" Naruto laughed with his arms held over his chest area, "I think so." With his shoddy maths, he couldn't be sure of anything when it involved numbers.

Yuzu shook her head, "All of that ramen is going to stunt your growth."

Naruto huffed haughtily, "I'm taller than you and Karin." The cheek of her to even say the best food ever created would basically make him shorter. No. Okay. Fuck no. if anything, it was making him stronger, faster, and better than ever, dattebayo!

"That's because Karin-chan and I haven't had a growth spurt yet." Yuzu reasoned.

"Growth spurt? What's that?" Naruto asked dumbly, his arms unfolding with one of his hands reaching up to his golden locks to give it a good scratch of cluelessness.

"It's where an adolescent goes through a rapid increase in growth." Yuzu explained while Naruto blinked, "You know, teenagers' heights enhancing while they go through publicity." The light brown haired girl didn't get anything in return other than the sounds of birds chirping in the distance. "…It's when someone gets taller, Naru-kun."

"Ohhhh! Why didn't you just say so?" Naruto grinned. "Then I'm due for a spurt-thingy too then!"

"But you won't grow that tall if you don't start eating healthier." Naruto pouted in annoyance as he turned away from Yuzu with his arms stubbornly crossed over his chest. Yuzu sighed and sat down on the sofa next to Naruto with her hands on her lap, "Please. Just try it, for me at least."

Naruto droned in frustration. She had him there. He would do anything for Yuzu-chan. She saved him from the abyss of loneliness and gave him someone who he could feel endeared towards in herself when he first arrived in Karakura Town, "Okay, Yuzu-chan. I'll eat it for you." Naruto finally resigned himself to his fate as he looked at his food and slowly moved his hands toward the knife and fork delicately placed on the side.

Yuzu smiled victoriously, putting her hands on either one of Naruto's shoulders with her head resting against his right shoulder before giving his shoulders a good squeeze of appreciation, "It won't be that bad. Maybe now you can be as tall as my brother, Ichigo." Yuzu blurted out before realizing what she said as she quickly covered her mouth with both of her hands.

"Ichigo…" Naruto muttered with his eyes partly closed. A remembrance of his introduction with Ichigo flashed through his mind, making him visibly shake with anger, "Wait! That's the douche who punched me down yesterday, dattebayo!" Naruto raged and Yuzu sighed, "What was his problem? I didn't get angry when he called me fishcake!" Seriously, what was with his parents calling him fishcake? Whoever the heck they were! Oh well… it didn't matter, because at the end of the day, it was just a name… in all its irksome righteousness.

"Don't be too harsh on onii-chan. He wasn't always like that. He used to be a happy boy like you before _that _day," Yuzu defended her brother's grumpy nature. Her hands moved to her dress where she balled her hands into fists with a portion of her dress in them.

Naruto looked curious, "What day."

"It was the day when our mommy passed away."

Naruto's eyes widened, "What?"

Yuzu nodded her head sadly, tears threatening to pour out of her eyes, "Karin-chan and I were so young when mommy died. Out of all of us, onii-chan took it the hardest. Instead of letting his emotions out, he did the worst thing he could do. He bottled them up inside to convince himself that he's a toughie instead of the kind hearted brother Karin-chan and I knew him as. My poor onii-chan's a shadow of his former-self." Yuzu wailed, covering her eyes with her hands as the floodgates from behind her eyes were busted open, allowing the tears to flow down her cheeks.

"Yuzu-chan…" Naruto said softly. He never knew the Kurosaki-family had such an instrumental and loving figure in their respective family. He never even thought about why only Isshin had come around his place of living because he disliked thinking.

Thinking was painful and not just on the brain.

"Was that why you and Karin couldn't come into school last week?" Naruto questioned and Yuzu wiped the tears away from her eyes with the backs of her hands.

"Yes. We always go to see mommy every year along with daddy and onii-chan to pay our respects to her." Yuzu informed him.

"Wherever I go it seems like I always meet people whom have experienced the pain of loss." Naruto whispered. Yuzu looked at the boy questionably, knowing he never kept his voice low unless it was for a darn good reason, "I can't say I know Ichigo's pain or why he's so full of regret." It all felt so foreign to Naruto. Even when he tried to understand it during his fight with Sasuke, the Uchiha-boy told him to shut his mouth.

Looking back on it now, maybe Sasuke was right to defect from Konoha. After all Konoha wasn't exactly bringing out the best in him. If anything, Sasuke's form and confidence dropped during a crucial period of his development within the walls of Konoha. And with a super strong killer of a brother on the loose the Uchiha took power where it was offered.

In the form of a legendary ninja, like him or not, no one could deny Orochimaru was one of the most powerful ninjas to ever grace (taint) the ninja-world with his presence. Naruto was reluctant to admit if one needed to enhance one's skills then it was a no-brainer to head to the snake-man for power.

If one could avoid getting one's soul ripped outta one's body with one's body being put on like a new set of clothes of course.

Yuzu stared at Naruto with wide eyes, "Naru-kun did your paren-."

"-Die after I was born? Yes. They did." Naruto finished in Yuzu's stead with a shrug of his shoulders. He didn't have the right to cry or feel sad for their deaths, because he never had them to begin with. Naruto sighed while folding his arms behind his head, looking at the ceiling, "I can't help but feel sorry for you and your siblings though."

"It's okay, honest." Yuzu attempted to assure him with a weak smile on her face. "We get by. I do the cooking, Karin hoovers up, daddy pays the bills, and onii-chan goes to school and works part-time as a security guard in a local lounge for high school and college students. We all manage day by day to get by."

"Yeah." Naruto let a small smile spread across his features, "Not much you can do after all."

"Hmm." Yuzu droned cutely, "Come on. Eat up and we'll go watch that film you were talking about." The day was young. They couldn't let the ghosts of their pasts stop them from living it to the fullest extent because after all they were kids and kids were meant to have fun, not sit around and wallow in self-pity.

"Alright!" Naruto's smile grew even bigger than before. He grabbed his fork and knife and went to wolf down into his food, "So where is Karin at if school isn't open?"

"Soccer practise with her friends."

"Alrighty then!"

So Yuzu and Naruto had the day to themselves. And they were hoping to make it a meaningful one.

XxX

(Karakura High School – Hallways – Ichigo)

The graduates of Karakura middle school unfortunately had to attend school today. That was just fine with Ichigo since he was looking forward to handing a condescending warrior's rear-end to him on a silver plate.

Damn it that guy really grinded his gears!

It all started earlier today after Rukia had used her expert acting skills to distract the teachers when they called in Ichigo, his posse of Chad, Keigo, and Mizuiro, and the girls of Rukia, Tatsuki and Orihime regarding the Spirit Hunter-event of which they made complete asses of themselves on national television, more so Ichigo and Rukia since the duo were seen being held off by security guards.

Orihime and Tatsuki got away with it since they technically wasn't with Ichigo and his gang. The teacher was stressed as all hell. It certainly wasn't the best way to promote the quality of their school if their students were depicted as hoodlums on television. He was determined to drill this info into their heads, but Rukia's fake acting enabled the boys in white to make like bandanas and split.

Afterward Rukia had to drag Ichigo off to purify some hollow. It sounded like the standard occurrence right? Well you're wrong! Because the hollow wasn't even there when Ichigo and Rukia dashed into an alleyway and seen some cowering spirit. The spirit described the hollow that he saw, but unfortunately failed to catch what had eradicated it from existence since he'd closed his eyes after seeing it once.

The same happened again after first period was over and that was when Ichigo met the superior one. _Grrrrrrrr! _He made Ichigo so mad! He spoke like he was on a higher plateau to Ichigo because he knew Ichigo was a shinigami since he sensed his power, which was also the reason why he could take out the hollows before he and Rukia were even able to arrive on the scene.

His sensing ability was more proficient then Rukia's soul pager. Simple.

What was that white clad, blue haired boy's name again? He had that strange silver-coloured cross hanging from his wrist. Maybe that was the key to his bow and arrow powers. He was also the smartest kid in Karakura high school finishing above the oddly intelligent but sometimes silly Orihime on the exams.

"What was that guy's name again?" Ichigo asked as he treaded through the hallway of his school. His headphones were wrapped around his neck to go with his school uniform, "Mack? Mackle? No, that wasn't it? Bucko? Bucky? No. He wasn't called that either. Ur-yoo… Ur-yoos." Ichigo contemplated what the bow and arrow wielding warrior's name was again. He never was any good at remembering names or faces, especially ones he didn't like.

"Do you mean Uryu Ishida?" Orihime's head propped itself from Ichigo's left side, surprising the orange haired warrior.

"Yeah. I was just saying his name to myself because it's such a great name!" Ichigo lied as he put himself in a ridiculous pose as if he was stretching. He would certainly be going home and punching himself in his face for even implying _that_ name was any good. But he wasn't going to admit to sweet Orihime how much he wanted to put Uryu in his place.

He felt he would be tainting her innocence if he did so. Besides, her brother requested of him to look after his sister for him. So he'd drop his badass persona around her, and show a gentler side of himself to her. Around her it was like Ichigo was bridging the gap between his heart and himself to allow her in.

Just her, though. No one else was getting any freebies from him.

Orihime mimicked Ichigo's silly pose happily, "Yeah it's pretty good. I say it quite a lot in home knitting class!"

"What?"

Orihime gestured for Ichigo to follow her to her class to which he did. The two reached the room after travelling up a set of stairs to the second floor. Ichigo slid open the door numbered 234, and poked his head inside with Orihime doing likewise except she had to bend her knees so her head would fit below Ichigo's.

Orihime looked around and pinpointed a bespectacled boy of average height with a slander built sitting by a desk reading a book in all his lonesome glory. His dark blue hair fell to his shoulders and two bangs framed his light skinned oval-shaped face. He smartly dressed himself in a white dress shirt with a blue and yellow striped tie wrapped around his neck. His white shirt was tucked into his grey pants and a pair of cleaned black shoes was on his feet.

"See. There's Ishida-san." Orihime pointed out.

"He's not doing anything." Ichigo groused quietly.

"Just watch."

As soon as those words left Orihime's mouth a girl came over to Uryu holding a pink stuffed rabbit in her hands. The stuffed animal had a ripped open arm and she was wondering if Uryu could repair it. Uryu's glasses gleamed with intent as he sharply grabbed the rabbit from the girl without permission, making her gasp.

His sewing kit was brought out of his bag so fast it looked like a blur to most barring Ichigo before he whipped out his tools needed to repair the rabbit. Dramatically, Uryu threw the rabbit up in the air and expertly repaired the arm of the rabbit before biting the extra bit of string not needed to make the rabbit as good as new again.

His equipment went back into his kit as his backside touched the seat of his chair. He put his sewing kit into his bag and coolly threw the stuffed animal back at the girl as if it had never been broken in the first place. The girl caught her teddy with a bright smile on her face.

"Whoa! Thanks Uryu-kun."

"Don't mention it." Uryu said, a dark gleam covering his eyes, "In fact don't talk to me again." The lone wolf dismissed the girl coldly, making her gulp as she slowly walked away. The lone wolf's eyes never left the contents of his book as he used his index finger to push his glasses up.

"Why would he do something so nice only to do something equally as cruel afterwards?" Orihime asked Ichigo sadly, removing her head from the door along with Ichigo who quietly shut the door in the somewhat hopeful bid the smug one wouldn't know he was there alongside Orihime.

"Hmph. Because he's an idiot that's why," The rude-boy said with a look of annoyance on his face.

"Are you and Ishida-san having trouble?" Orihime asked.

"Don't worry," Orihime felt heat flare up on her cheeks as Ichigo's big strong hand landed delicately on her shoulder, giving her Goosebumps as she stared into the hazel hued eyes of Ichigo, "It's nothing I can't handle." Ichigo finished coolly, his hand coming off of Orihime's shoulder, much to her chagrin.

Ichigo put his hands into his pockets and bounced off like a hard-man.

"Kurosaki-kun wait!" Ichigo somewhat goofy, but slick movement ended momentarily as he turned his head to look at the innocent orange burnt haired girl who had just called out to him.

"What is it?" Ichigo questioned.

Orihime bit her bottom lip, swaying in place with her hands cupping her cheeks. Shyness was a pain in the rear-end because Orihime couldn't find the right words to say to her saviour, "Just be careful okay?" Ichigo 'hmphed' and offered the girl a smirk of such cockiness even a certain prince of all saiyans would've been proud of him.

"Heh. Getting hurt simply doesn't comply with me." Ichigo stated before he treaded away from Orihime leaving the beautiful girl watching him as he did so, her hair elegantly blowing in the wind as if the overwhelming presence of Ichigo alone had created the wind that forced her long hair to the side.

"I wanted to tell him…" Orihime trailed off, regret in her watered eyes, "But he still won't notice me." How could Orihime get Ichigo's attention? That orange haired enigma was her saviour. Firstly, she could've sworn that day was a dream of her and Tatsuki sitting in her apartment eating food Tatsuki had brought over from her home until a sumo wrestler exploded through the wall of her apartment and offered the girls two plates of sushi.

No. That wasn't right at all.

She knew what happened deep down. But after witnessing her dear deceased brother as a monster with him and Ichigo trying to tear each other asunder it was understandable why the girl would want nothing more but to suppress parts of that memory forever. But even still there was a golden ray of happiness in the abyss of traumatic darkness of that memory.

And it was Ichigo showing up dressed like a ninja-turned-samurai with a totally wicked sword held on his shoulder as if the massive thing weighed nothing to him to protect her. It always made Orihime's cheeks flare up with her heart beating significantly louder when she replayed the night of which Ichigo came to her aid when she needed it most.

He always gave her a warm fuzzy feeling inside of her gut and sent Goosebumps all over her body just by so much as shaking her hand. Now if only she could spend more time with him.

"I know! I'll go find Tatsuki-chan! She'll know what to do!" Orihime chirped optimistically. Her sisterly-figure would give her some good advice to get a tad closer to Ichigo.

Indeed she would.

XxX

(Hours Later)

With school over, the Quincy-warrior was strolling home with the strap of his bag dangling from his shoulder and his actual bag itself falling to his rear-end. It had almost been the normal routine for the blue haired lone wolf. He'd go to his classes, read his books, keep himself to himself, and go home once the bell signifying the end of the school day rang out throughout the building… it was almost business as usual except for one tiny change that had bugged him since third period.

It was that oozing amount of reiatsu following closely behind him. Even now he could sense it as he walked up the stairs. So Uryu turned around and called out to his stalker, "I know you're there. You've been ducking in and out of the shadows since third period. Don't take me like I'm some kind of second rate warrior."

A sheepish Ichigo came from behind the wall with his gym-bag held over his shoulder, which he had retrieved from his locker, "Heh. That long huh?" Ichigo was still strangely in good spirits as he treaded closer to Uryu.

"With all that reiatsu you've been leaking even a monkey would've noticed it." Uryu mentioned, staring coldly at Ichigo who stopped to scowl at Uryu, "Why have you even sought me out for in the first place? I hardly doubt you wanted an autograph from me." Uryu pushed his glasses up with his index finger.

"Damn straight I didn't." Ichigo replied evenly, eyes shutting as he lowered his head before looking back up at Uryu once again, "I wanna know what your beef with shinigami is? Why do you despise them huh? And why are you taking out hollows? Is it some kind of game to you huh?"

"I fail to see how that's any of your business." Uryu told Ichigo, "You shinigami are all the same. You're all scum of the highest calibre. And I'm going to expose all of you worthless trash as the pile of garbage you are by showing the superior strength of the Quincy."

"The superior strength of the Quincy?" The half breed shinigami blinked his eyes at the Quincy-boy.

Uryu let out a scoff, "Don't make me have to spell it out. There's a comprehensive gulf in class between you and I. If you were anything like me you'd have at least known the day I arrived in school just like how I defected your reiatsu the moment you walked into Karakura high school." Uryu babbled on condescendingly, "I do. I even know the day you became a shinigami."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed dangerously, a dark gleam shadowing his eyes, "Oh really?" Uryu scoffed and proceeded to demonstrate his superiority by manifesting a massive amount of white ribbons around him covered by a blue glow, "Spirit Ribbons?"

"For once you're correct." Uryu declared, the many white ribbons flowing around him with a few odd ones out. "They represent the manifestation of reiryoku all beings possess." Uryu vanished as if he had teleported, making Ichigo widen his eyes as the four-eyed boy reappeared in front of him clutching a distinctive red ribbon in his hand, "This is yours. Did you know that a shinigami's ribbon is red? How else do you think I know Rukia Kuchiki's true identity?"

Ichigo growled exasperatedly. So his sensing ability was really proficient then. Big whoop! It didn't mean anything damn it! Because at the end of the day, Ichigo was still number one! "Tch. Like that means anything."

Uryu took this as a challenge, "How about a duel Ichigo Kurosaki?"

Ichigo turned his back on Uryu, his nose in the air, "Hmph. You're not worth my time. Besides, I've got nothing to prove to the likes of you."

Uryu's eyes narrowed, "Oh. I forgot. You're not even a proper shinigami. You're just a substitute. You probably have to get permission from Rukia-san to do battle against inferior hollows?" Uryu played on Ichigo's arrogance to coax the boy into this duel with him. It was working as the blue haired teenager could see Ichigo gritting his teeth and clenching his hand into a fist tightly, Ichigo's nails digging his hand causing blood to spill out of it.

"You're no more than Rukia's lap dog. She tells, no, _commanders_ you to attack and you obey. It's fitting really, when I think about it, considering the fact that you're a shinigami-scum." Uryu berated Ichigo, the orange haired shinigami's temper reaching boiling point as he spun back around to Uryu with anger in his eyes.

"That does it." Ichigo mumbled beastly, flipping his gym-bag in front of him before opening it up and taking out the similar stuffed animal acting as Kon's body, much to Uryu's nonchalance as he'd already sensed the artificially made soul inside of his gym-bag.

"Well it's about time Ichigo! You keeping the great Kon-sama inside of that smelly bag is an insult I say!" Kon complained in Ichigo's grip, "I don't care what nee-chan says, I don't have to do anything for you if you're not gonna show me the respect that I deserve."

"Cough it up." Ichigo commanded and Kon sweated instantly as Ichigo's hand began reaching for his mouth.

"No! Wait! Forget I said anything! You can put me back in that bag if you want to!" Kon begged before finding his words muffled as Ichigo rammed his hand inside of Kon's body looking for something. It wasn't long until he felt his fingertips brush something tiny within Kon that got him to smirk beastly.

"I got it." Ichigo's hand came out of Kon's mouth, the stuffed animal shutting off as if someone had switched off a button inside of him. A green pill was now in Ichigo's hand that he wasted no time flicking into the air with his thumb before swallowing it without a second thought. Ichigo felt his whole body vibrate once and then he felt his very essence skating on thin ice as a replica of himself spouted from the back of his body, blue lines of reiatsu following after it.

Only this version of Ichigo was dressed differently. His hair was still intact but his attire was very much changed. A black kimono top, a white sash, a pair of hakama pants, a couple of geta sandals on his feet, and a red rosary strap was around his shoulder so a massive clever-shaped bandaged-wrapped broadsword could be sheathed to his back was now Ichigo's appearance.

"Why can't you give a guy a warning first Ichigo before you slither your arm down his throat? I tell ya it isn't any fun to forcefully get your very soul extracted outta something as if it were some kinda donut." Kon complained in Ichigo's body, waving his arms around indignantly. What Ichigo wore originally was still very much unchanged on his physical body being possessed by Kon.

Ichigo took his headphones from Kon (or himself in this case), and put them around his neck. "You'd better get back Kon." Because only the lord knew he didn't want his physical body accidentally getting maimed now.

"Right!" Kon squeaked as he ran behind the wall.

Ichigo's hand grabbed the hilt of his Zanpakuto, bringing it off of his back and allowing his Zanpakuto to unfurl itself as if it had a mind of its own, the silvered blade of the sword gleaming in a sun light that wasn't even there, "…So, what's the challenge?"

Uryu pushed his glasses up with his _middle_ finger and then switched to holding up his thumb and index finger as if demonstrating how closely matched two warriors were. Bits of milky white substance gathered in the centre of Uryu's fingers, materializing a white gum-shaped small disk.

"I figured we may as well amp up the stakes of this little wager." Uryu explained partly, making confusion appear on Ichigo's face. "This is hollow bait. If crushed, hollows will gather and litter the streets of Karakura Town."

"WHAT?"

"What?" Uryu repeated Ichigo's line carelessly, "Does the sound of a little army of disgusting creatures frighten you… Ichigo?"

"That's not the point damn it!" Ichigo yelled with his hand threatening to crack the hilt of his Zanpakuto, "You'll be putting innocent lives in danger if you even so much of squeeze that thing! Don't bring anyone else into _our _fight! EH! You got that bastard!"

"Hmph. I can sense the fear just oozing off of you." Ichigo growled at the haughty Quincy, "It's because you're not feeling confident of your chances of securing the entire town's safety against a group of fiendish hollows. How fortunate you are, because I, a being of a superior race, shall eradicate all hollows in the name and honour of the Quincy!"

"The rules are so simple even a thick skulled person such as yourself can understand them." Ichigo snarled at Uryu's jab at his intelligence. He was smart damn it! He was ranked fairly high on the school exams this year, "Whoever slaughters the most hollows in twenty four hours is declared the superior warrior."

The bait that was in Uryu's hand was flicked away into nothing but tiny white pieces of reishi that flowed elegantly through the air.

"Damn it!" Ichigo cussed bitterly.

"Ohhhh! What's gonna happen?" Kon quivered.

Everything fell flat as if the atmosphere itself had shut down all sounds around the world of the living so the warriors who were about to begin their onslaughts of hollows in a wild-west showdown kind of battle could've absolute concentration… the calm before the storm so they say.

Thunderously, the very sky itself cracked as if it were made out of mere glass. A wide eyed Ichigo and Kon bared witness to two sets of hands gripping the edges of the sky, and prying it open as if it were doing something as simple as opening up the curtains. A horrifying creature only seen in one's nightmare showed its concealed face and its hole in its chest, but before it could leap out of the tunnel connecting this realm to its… it was gone.

…Gone in a shower of sparky blue lights, completely eradicated from this world.

Uryu stood at the side with his legs a good distance apart. His arm was stretched back with his middle finger propelled forward as if he'd let go of something. And his right arm, the one which dangled the strange cross from his wrist held a crossbow developed on the spot with pure reishi.

"That's one point for me." Uryu said as if he hadn't essentially released the apocalypse upon Karakura Town. He dematerialised his bow and arrow in order to prolong his power for as long as possible before he felt his feet leave the ground and a set of knuckles digging into his chin.

"Don't fuck about. Make those hollows go away. Now." Ichigo growled warningly, holding a stone-faced Uryu up in the air with his weaker hand as if he weighed nothing.

"The die has been casted Kurosaki." Uryu told him unmercifully, not even wincing much less flinching like some people would do after getting their bodies slammed into the wall with ferocity, and an ill-tempered expression staring them in their faces as if daring them to refuse his command.

"Human life is not a game." Ichigo growled, his whole body shaking from the tremendous anger he felt flowing through his veins as he pressed Uryu up against the wall.

"If you're not confident of protecting the spiritually aware people of this town then stay out of my way," Uryu spat and Ichigo gnashed his teeth like a wild tiger, "You better get going, if you're still in the duel that is. Hollows have the tenancy to go after those with high amounts of reiryoku."

Ichigo's eyes widened as he remembered those crazed monstrous beings going after his precious little sisters a couple of times when he had first become a shinigami and when he went to visit his mother's grave, "Karin, Yuzu!" Ichigo looked at Kon with urgency in his eyes, "Kon! Get going and find Yuzu! I'll look for Karin somewhere else!"

"I'm on it Ichigo!" Kon promised as he sprinted off to do as told.

Ichigo dropped Uryu who landed simply on his feet as if he had never been off of them. Slowly, Ichigo raised his finger at Uryu and declared in a deep, dark, apathetical tone of voice, "If anyone of my family or friends dies because of this… I will kill you. Mark my words, I. Will. Kill. You." Ichigo promised resolutely, unintentionally sinking his feet into the steps he and Uryu was on by tremendously spiking his power, cracks forming all over the stairs and walls as he did so.

Ichigo grinned satisfyingly at the shocked look on Uryu's face. He wasn't quite sure what he did to make such colossal damage to the stones around them, but he would tell anyone that he liked his handy work.

After Ichigo had run off to find his sister, Uryu took a moment to observe the amount of cracks Ichigo had created by flaring his reiatsu as wildly as he did so, "What an incredible amount of reiatsu he has to do this much damage just by channelling his reiatsu as barbarically as he did… this could be bad." Uryu clenched his fist at the thought of more hollows than he'd predicted coming to absorb Ichigo and anyone who stood in their ways, "No matter. He's lucky I will be erasing all hollows before they can harm those most dear to him."

Uryu looked up at the sky, a semblance of an old man appearing before his eyes that made him clench his fist for luck before disappearing in a blur of speed.

XxX

(With Naruto and Yuzu)

The youngsters of Karakura middle school were sat on a bench not too far away from an ice cream stand after buying a couple for themselves. Yuzu also had her handbag hanging off of her left shoulder.

"Man that film was totally epic!" Naruto shouted, sitting on a bench next to Yuzu after the duo had finished watching a Kung Fu film Naruto had been dying to see. "More moves to add to my collection of incomplete styles!" That was why it was so fun to watch the professionals of fighting slug it out for a couple of long hours on TV or the cinema, because one could use their moves as inspiration to make their own moves.

Sasuke did that easily. He used Lee's move as a base to make his Shishi Rendan (Lion's Barrage), and Naruto in response to that said, "Thank you very much Sasuke, 'cause I'll use yours as a base to make my own totally kickass taijutsu-move!" And thus the Uzumaki Rendan (Uzumaki Barrage) was born.

Sometimes it was bless to be a ninja. Naruto just wished that he'd the sharingan because then it would be so much easier to create his own killer attacks.

"I suppose it was a nice film." Yuzu grimaced slightly, licking on a vanilla flavoured ice cream with sprinkles, a flake, and red sauce over it. She wasn't into action films, but Naruto was so she had to pretend to like it for his sake. Besides, the joy of seeing a film one didn't like for a friend was that friend held one over her friend, "Now we have to see a film of my choosing."

"Aw!" Naruto moaned. "But you're probably gonna pick a chick flick."

Yuzu pouted cutely, "Hey. I've got good tastes when it comes to picking out films you know. I might surprise you." Yuzu said. 'Oh phooey, how'd Naru-kun know I was going to pick a romantic film? He can be so selfish sometimes,' Yuzu continued internally, "Besides, you got to pick the first film we've seen. It's only fair that I get to pick one now."

"Guess so." Naruto spoke lowly, sinking his posture down with Yuzu grinning sheepishly, a bead of sweat falling off of the side of her forehead, "So you really didn't wanna see Ji Lee awesomely kick butt Yuzu-chan?"

"Oh no, it's not that I don't like it. It's just that I prefer a good-natured film to a barbaric one." Yuzu hurriedly rushed to assure her friend of his worries.

Naruto stared at her blinkingly before abruptly bursting out in laughter, "Haha! I get it! You don't have to say any more! Let's go watch your girly movie or something!" The easy-going boy said with a carefree smile on his face.

Yuzu stared at him with shining eyes, 'Naru-kun's always so relaxed even when something bad happens to him.' It was a trait she seriously admired about her friend. It spoke volumes about him. He wasn't out to prove himself to be the best there was at anything. He was just content with life and more importantly, his own life.

"Alrighty! Let's get going." Feeling optimistic about the film Yuzu wanted to watch, Naruto hopped to his feet and wolfed down his ice cream as if it wasn't even in his hand to begin with, cone and all. Perhaps watching this film would give him some good tips for getting with Sakura-chan when he returned home? One always had to look on the bright side of things regardless of what they were doing.

Yuzu giggled as she stood up. Her friend's hyperactive attitude was almost contagious, "Right on Naru-kun. I got a good feeling you might like it." Naruto grinned at his friend as the two began to venture toward the cinema. They didn't get very far before Naruto heard a strange booming noise that made him look toward the sky for any signs of the unusual.

"You hear that?" Naruto asked.

"Hear what Naru-kun?" Yuzu asked in return blinking her eyes at Naruto. Naruto squinted his eyes as he stared long and hard at the sky, seeing it shatter like glass before being forcefully ripped open as if it were curtains. A few black creatures with white masks on their faces spewed out of the hole and landed elsewhere.

"Huh? Am I seeing things?" Naruto pondered.

Yuzu frowned while she stared at the sky and saw nothing but blurs and shadows, "You might have seen a spirit or lots of them by the looks of things. It's all blurring to me." Yuzu whispered as the duo continued their trek to the cinema.

Naruto folded his arms behind his head, "Well that seems entirely outta place… dattebayo. I thought they would've found their way to the other side by now."

Yuzu gained a thoughtful look on her face as she licked her ice cream a couple of times, "It could be that they don't want to pass on yet. Though, I think they should."

'Does Yoruichi-baachan know of this?' Naruto mused. This many spirits at once just spelt trouble. They were more or less just asking to be eaten alive by hollows to become ones themselves, 'I hope baa-chan's dealing with 'em.' There was no need for innocent souls to be turned into hollows.

Once Yuzu and Naruto neared the cinema, the blond boy couldn't suppress the groan of exasperation that escaped his lips at seeing the long queue of people lined up for tickets outside of the cinema. Even his dear friend Yuzu-chan couldn't stop the cute moan from escaping her lips realizing she would have to wait a little longer to see the film of her choosing.

"Aw, now there's a queue of people waiting outside. It won't be as comfortable for us to watch Two Kindled Spirits as it was when we saw that tiger film." Yuzu frowned adorably.

"Yep," Naruto muttered with his eyes still partly closed and arms folded behind his head. His mind was still lingering on the strange tear in the sky he'd saw earlier on. He just couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen any minute now.

Naruto felt his head rapidly pushed to the side with what felt like something soft and small, 'Huh? What was that?' Naruto looked at Yuzu, 'No. Yuzu-chan wouldn't hit me.' Besides, that was Karin's job. Again Naruto's head was pushed in the same direction of before. Only this time he felt little nails digging into his cheeks.

'Who's doing that?' Naruto kept his head turned in the direction of where his head was shoved to, raising an eyebrow once he seen the cheeky purple haired woman in cat form waving her paw at him before ushering it herself as if to say come over here.

Naruto pointed to himself and Yoruichi nodded simply. Naruto stared at Yuzu who was casually droning to herself while patiently waiting in line. 'I ought to make a clone to keep Yuzu-chan preoccupied while I talk to Yoruichi-baachan.' Naruto silently stepped behind Yuzu, slowly and stealthily advancing away from his friend until he felt he was at a considerable distance away from her.

"Hey. Where'd Naru-kun go?" Yuzu questioned as she looked at the spot where Naruto was. An immense wind that came out of nowhere flipped her dress about, making her hold down the edges of her dress with a frown on her face. "Ohhhh! Where'd that wind come from? The weather forecaster never said it would be windy today."

"Hey Yuzu-chan!" Naruto's slid up to the side of a startled Yuzu. "Sorry, I had to the visit the alleyway to do a number one. Haha!"

Yuzu sighed, "At least tell me before you wonder off Naru-kun. I almost thought you ditched me there for a minute."

"I wouldn't do that." 'Naruto' assured her with a big grin on his face. "But I'll tell ya next time when I need to let the dogs out before I unleash 'em up on the wall. You can count on me Yuzu-chan!"

Yuzu smiled blissfully, oblivious to the fact that Naruto's power had split in half, "Good. It's only proper courtesy after all. It makes me happy to see that you're aware of your lack of manners and want to do your best to change yourself for the better by using manners."

"I would do everything to make you happy." And he (or it in this case) meant that from the bottom of his heart.

XxX

"So what'd you need from me granny?" Naruto asked after walking into the alleyway around the corner from the cinema where his clone and Yuzu stood in a long queue of people lined up to buy tickets, "I was kinda busy if you didn't notice."

"So I see." Yoruichi smirked, her eyes gleaming in mischief.

"See what? Yuzu-chan and I were going to see a film." Naruto told her in all his ignorance.

"A love film no doubt." Yoruichi pressed on in pure resolution to embarrass him in one way or the next.

"Hey! It's not like that baa-chan!" Naruto whispered loudly, indignation evident in his eyes.

"Then what is it about?" Yoruichi asked teasingly, getting Naruto to helplessly shake his head from side to side while sputtering incoherent sentences. Yoruichi erupted in a fit of laughter at the blond-boy, "Haha! Who needs TV! You're all the entertainment I need Whiskers!"

Naruto frowned as he folded his arms over his chest.

"Oh lighten up, Whiskers. I'm only having some fun like you do when you call me baa-chan."

"That's because you're an old lady."

"Just like how you and your precious 'Yuzu-chan' were about to mooch before my intervention came into play."

"Point taken."

"I thought so."

"Anyway," Tripe aside: "How come you needed me over here? I mean I doubt it was for something as silly as teasing me." He was one to talk about silliness.

Yoruichi's expression turned serious, "Did you by any chance catch the black vortex up in the sky."

"Black vortex? Hmm…" Naruto rubbed his chin before snapping his middle finger and thumb together in remembrance, "Oh yeah! What was that! Yuzu-chan could barely see a thing other than a strange blob of blackness."

"That means she'll be last on the list of hollows coming to the world of the living to feast on some souls." Yoruichi declared seriously, making Naruto widen his eyes.

"Yuzu-chan's in danger! I gotta go help her!" Naruto said frantically, trying to run off to protect his friend until Yoruichi grabbed his ankle with her mouth, "Lemme go! You said it yourself! Greedy heartless bastards are coming to snack on Yuzu-chan, and maybe they might add some cheese on top of her for flavour. I dunno! I'm scared!"

"Think you fool! Remember our discussion yesterday. If the hollows coming from the Garganta aren't related to any human soul during their lifespan they'll instead go after the ones with high amounts of reiryoku. In this instance their prime target will be you." Naruto stopped and gulped.

"Garganta? Is that what that big vortex-thingy up in the sky was?" Naruto asked.

"Yep." Yoruichi chirped.

"Okay. Is that why you wanted me away from Yuzu-chan. So the hollow-creeps would chase me and not her?" Naruto asked.

"Yes that's partly the reason why little one. I also thought you might've been curious to know why so many hollows were chasing after you all of a sudden when it inevitably happens."

Naruto nodded his head, "Yeah! But why would they suddenly decide to all come from Hueco Mundo for? I mean I'm not that tasty, nor that healthy. I would probably rot their teeth out if they ate me dattebayo." Yoruichi wanted to laugh at that but the situation was far too grave for jokes.

"Hollow bait."

"Hollow bait?"

"Yes. A tool created by a race of warriors known as the Quincy to lure hollows to their domain in order to kill them off. They could all detect hollows and had an abundance of reiryoku like you have of today, but they could only have themselves to blame for their demise."

Naruto crossed his arms and squinted his eyes, "What killed 'em guys."

"The shinigami-elites."

"What?"

"You heard right little one. The shinigami were forced to brutally clean out most of the Quincies. Or all of them as I originally thought before today."

"But why would the shinigami do such a thing? I thought they helped souls not man-slaughtered 'em asunder." Naruto said, clenching his hands into fists as he remembered his best friend's clan being eradicated by his own brother for one reason or the next Naruto may never know.

"It was like I told you yesterday, shinigami purify hollows, allowing them to find peace and happiness in the Soul Society depending if the hollow hadn't committed any truly devilish sins. Then they head to hell to be tortured for eternality. The Quincy couldn't understand the remorse the shinigami showed the hollows. To them, why should something so fiendish be offered redemption after it devoured so many innocent lives? Looking at it that way, one could see the Quincy-side of the argument."

"Couldn't the shinigami and the Quincy have worked out a better way to resolve their issues?" Naruto pondered.

"I'm afraid not. They kept on erasing hollows from existence which disrupted the balance of souls between the Human world and the Soul Society. The consequences would've been dire if most Quincy were allowed to roam scot free around the world of the living."

"Damn it." Naruto cursed as he turned his back on Yoruichi.

"What are you going to do now little one?" Yoruichi asked.

"You said it yourself there's still more Quincies alive of today, and that one's signalled others like a bloodhound dog to slaughter 'em like lambs."

"Not necessarily, but there has to be a couple of rats scurrying around somewhere if hollow-bait was crushed to lure hollows here. After all some Quincies were clever and dashed on outta the flying pan before things got too heated during the boiling massacre of them by the hands of the shinigami." Yoruichi elucidated wittily.

"Then I gotta go and assure that my precious people such as Yuzu-chan, Karin, and the old man at the ramen-shop don't get eaten." Not to mention the boy would be lying if he said he wasn't intrigued of this Quincy-person. What was he or she like? Was he or she the vengeful kind of type like Sasuke or did he/she just despise the shinigami in general?

"Idiot! You're gonna draw the hollows to their locations unless you suppress your energy!" Yoruichi scolded him but the smirk on Naruto's face let her know that he had a plan.

"Heh. I got an ace in the hole for that granny," Naruto formed the criss-cross hand-sign, "**Kage Bunshin no Bunshin** **(Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" **Naruto's chakra reserves went down from S-class to B-class level as a large amount of smoke appeared in the alleyway, causing Yoruichi to cough violently.

"Give a cat some warning before you do that jutsu-thingy, Whiskers." Yoruichi complained playfully, widening her eyes once the smoke cleared up to reveal a bunch of Naruto-clones, fifty in all, glued to the wall. "Just how much reiryoku have you got Whiskers?" His topples hers by leaps and bounds.

"Listen up! Y'all know the drill! So one of you go replace that other bundle of awesomeness next to Yuzu-chan and protect her from those hungry bastards looking for a quick snack! Another one of you go find Karin as quickly as possible!" Naruto commanded of his clones who gave him strange looks as if they had found it ludicrous that some random blond-boy was ordering them about. Luckily, they all shared a common goal, to protect Yuzu and Karin at all costs. So it didn't really matter which one of them was dishing out the orders so long as someone was doing it.

"What about the rest of us?" A clone asked curiously.

Naruto smirked savagely.

"Let loose a five thousand year old ancient can of whoop asses on those bastards!"

"YAY!"

"This ought to be interesting." Yoruichi said amusingly, watching Naruto and his clones sprint out of the alleyway at an insane amount of speed for anyone else that wasn't her.

Hey, they didn't call her the Goddess of Flash for nothing now.

XxX

"What was that?" Yuzu questioned as she covered her ears from the noise that sounded like a bunch of Narutos shouting yay at once. Good lord, one Naruto yelling was enough, but tons of Yuzu's blond friend screaming excitedly at the top of their lungs was enough to blow out people's ear drums.

Yuzu's dress inexplicably flipped about again, making her pout since she and Naruto were almost at the front of the line. She didn't want people getting a freebie of her panties. She wasn't a slut. Her daddy taught her better than that.

"I dunno. I didn't hear anything." Another Naruto-clone said with his arms folded behind its head like it had been there the whole time. Yuzu looked at Naruto-clone and sighed.

"Maybe I'm just imaging things." Yuzu guessed and Naruto-clone shrugged its shoulders, "Anyway, we're almost at the front of the line. Isn't that good Naru-kun?!"

"Yay! I can't wait!" Naruto-clone cheered with a strained grin on its face. It looked away from a beaming Yuzu with tears in its eyes, 'Why did it have to be me seeing this film with Yuzu-chan? I wanna fight too.' It could only hope the others had a hell of a hard time taking out those stupid hollows, but it knew deep down that it was only being optimistic since it was still Naruto.

And Naruto never backed down from a challenge.


	4. Battle of the Rude Boys

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Naruto. **

**Who do you think would win in a fight: Dangai Ichigo Kurosaki versus current Naruto?**

**For me, Naruto would destroy any form of Ichigo except for the current one because we have to give him some time to demonstrate his power, but his other forms including his Dangai one is no match for Naruto. Naruto's been blowing multiple mountains, he's fast, he has bags of tricks whilst Ichigo's a one trick pony, and very durable. **

**Ichigo, to be fair, vaporized a hill with a swing of his sword without powering up in his Mugetsu form and he is also very fast. However, I believe Naruto would beat him until I see further evidence of his power in the manga that puts him on Biju mode Naruto's level.**

**But gimme your opinions on that one. **

**Dangai Ichigo vs Biju Naruto**

**Bleach is probably the weakest of the big two (three) - Naruto - One Piece - Bleach**

* * *

**Chapter 4 **

**Battle of the Rude Boys**

"Argh! Argh! Argh! Argh! Argh! Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Grunts of pure exasperation boomed off of the walls as the zanpakuto-wielding-outraged-boy found his work tedious, while many blue pieces of reishi scattered across his face from the devilish beings concealing their faces with masks he'd just slashed. And he still wasn't even done. Wherever he went, be it the high street of Karakura Town, his workplace, or the funfair, hollows just kept on coming and lined up single file for tickets to either the Soul Society or Hell.

At this very minute the hot-headed one was literally zigzagging through an alleyway, taking out funny shaped hollows as he did so.

"Goddamn it! I've got no time for this! I gotta find Karin now!" Ichigo roared, taking out hollow numbered 43 by his count. After Ichigo had sprinted out of the alleyway, he found himself surrounded by multiple hollows all greedily rubbing their hands together and looking at him with smirks on their faces, "Get outta my way, goddamn it!"

Ichigo held his zanpakuto over his shoulder with his left leg placed in front of himself before he gave a backwards spin and kept at his speedy rotation until his whole body resembled that of a tornado, slicing the hollows up via his blade or the immense shockwaves of which were created by the force of Ichigo twisting himself in an unstoppable 360 spin insanely.

Primal roars erupted from the hollows' lungs while they dissolved into tiny white reishi-pieces which scattered throughout the air. The hurricane of which Ichigo created with his own body settled down, allowing him to see the damage he'd caused. The ground was folded over as if a steamroller had come and damaged it and the streetlights were toppled over.

"Hm. I didn't mean to let loose that much." Ichigo said while blinking his eyes at the colossal damage he caused. Maybe he should hold back? After all he didn't want someone getting maimed accidentally. Well it implied to everyone who wasn't _Uryu. _Just thinking about the four-eyed boy made Ichigo gnash his teeth, "Damn it. When I find that bastard I'm going to shove my foot up his ass!"

"**Grrrrrrrrrrrrr**!"

Ichigo cleaned out his right ear with his index finger at the primal roar of a hollow. Looking up, Ichigo's scowl deepened heavily seeing a lanky hollow with dark green skin leap from the black vortex it opened up known as the Garganta and landed in a crouch position. Its skull-shaped mask had two round ears resembling that of a bear's, a blank blackish-purple orb was embedded into its chest, and its yellowed eyes shined mirthfully at the prospect of absorbing Ichigo.

"**I'm going to eat you up," **The hollow said with its deep, gruffly voice and saliva dripping out of its mouth, "**All of that energy, it smells wonderful!"**

"Ever heard of swallowing?" Ichigo grimaced, "Hmph. Just another hollow destined to get its dumbass-self purified." A savage smirk spread itself across Ichigo's face as he rose his zanpakuto and set himself in a fighting stance at the ready, "it's just a matter of where you're going to end up, to the sanctuary of heaven or to the flames of hell!"

"**Heh. You talk a lot for a well-cooked meal. But then again that's just the way I like my food, spicy!" **The hollow remarked as its hands starting encircling the blackish orb in its stomach, much to Ichigo's confusion as he tensed up, "**I must put on the kitchen gloves and tenderize you before you get roasted. Prepare yourself, because the bib's on and I. Will. Feast. On. Your Soul. And. Power. IT WILL BE MINE!" **The D-class hollows that were spewing out of the Garganta and onto their own locations immediately changed direction and assembled to the bear-like one as if it were their chief/commander.

Ichigo witnessed with a look of annoyance on his face as the hollows were sucked into the bear-one's orb, making its light up with a glowing white colour, "Tch. Are you turning on your own comrades for power or something?"

"**Precisely," **The hollow agreed after the eleventh low D-class hollow was absorbed into its being. An eruption of purple devilish reishi emerged from the hollow's body, skyrocketing itself into the sky and roofing it apart.

Ichigo stepped back instinctually with his arm held up near his forehead as the ground cratered around the hollow's feet and the air was forcefully blown into Ichigo's face. Ichigo let out a frustrated growl at the circumstances he faces, "Ugh. I really don't need this! I still have to find Karin."

It wasn't long until the light died down and the hollow was revealed with a new look. Its skin was coal black like the regular hollows, but its body was far more stockier than what it was previously, completing its bear-like look, "**Yeah. I, Bobomaru, am semi complete. Prepare yourself, because you will become a part of my being just like the other meals around this rich town giving off a wonderful scent of reiryoku."**

"Hmph." Ichigo set himself in a stance at the ready, "The only thing you'll be eating is the frontal-part of my blade to your face."

"**Oooo, I'm shaking. No, really, I am. Because the oven's switched on to the maximum and you're in danger of getting roasted!" **Small tremors were being released which quaked the ground as Hollow-Bobomaru chased after Ichigo in an attempt to show him he was more than just talk, **"I best not take long. I got side dishes to devour after getting through with the main course."**

Ichigo spat.

"Hm. Let's see what ya got."

xXx

(With Naruto)

"What was that light?" The blond wondered with a deep pensive look on his whiskered-face. His clones were rampaging around Karakura town using their pace to knock the ugly creatures away from any civilian they dared to go near. Some even grabbed a civilian and flashed forward a good few centimetres since they were dangerously close to the lingering hollows.

The original was standing atop of a skyscraper overlooking the city after seeing that beam of energy shoot upward and move the sky slightly, "Man hollows are tenacious! And I need to find Karin. I better send a clone to sniff around the area of where that energy-thingy was shot into the sky from."

Naruto formed the criss-cross hand-sign, "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" **A replica of himself popped into existence with a cloud of smoke which quickly disappeared. "Something's going down. You should head on down there and crash the party, dattebayo!"

The clone gave him a thumbs-up, "You got it boss! I'm hyped up for the battle-royal of a lifetime." With that the clone's feet touched the building before it quickly started racing down it faster than a speeding bullet train.

Naruto scratched his head after watching his clone disappear into the distance, "Now where's Karin at again?" His index finger went onto his chin as he scrunched his face up in desperation to remember where Karin was, "Aww! I can't remember where Yuzu-chan said she was at!" Okay, deep breathing. He could do this. After all how hard could it be to remember someone's specific location?

"NO! It's hopeless!" Naruto wailed with a waterfall of tears pouring from his eyes, "Karin's gonna die and it'll be all my fault 'cause I couldn't find her! I didn't even get to play soccer with her!" As those words left his mouth, the noise of a casino machine going off to signify jackpot for some lucky rascal went off inside of his head.

"That's it!" Naruto snapped his middle finger and thumb together, "Karin's at soccer practise with her friends today, damn I'm awesome! Hehe! Alrighty, I'm gonna rush off and protect my friend to the very end of time!" Or until the hollows stopped coming to Karakura Town, whichever one came first.

Naruto frowned. What if the hollows didn't stop coming to Karakura Town? How would he deal with the lot of them before they could absorb anyone into their beings? Naruto was sure he would _eventually _run out of energy even if it took him a week or two to use up his batteries.

"Yoruichi-baachan said that Quincy-guy or girl lured the hollows here like the person was fishing with hollow bait. Maybe the Quincy knows how to stop the hollows swarming over the town." Naruto raced down the skyscraper he was on speedily, his feet bathed in an aura of blue after focusing his chakra there to do it.

"Whatever the case no one's gonna die on my watch."

XxX

"Hey, Sado, where're you going dude?!"

One of Chad's good friends shouted after the big man after the ground was cratered by an unknown tremor which inexplicably occurred. Chad's two friends who were planning to grab a bite to eat with Chad shared quizzical expressions on their faces like the other civilians that had saw the mammoth teenage boy take off as if someone was planning to shoot his grandma.

The reason for this, was because he could sense something. Whatever it was it had a lot of malevolence. Chad could slightly see it in the forms of heat-waves wavering in front of _him _and _him _alone. Chad wasn't dumb, he knew when a thing was after him since it clearly stared upon him without so much of turning to someone or something else.

'I'm not really sure why that thing's after me, but I know if I stay here innocent people will get hurt.' Chad thought as he raced away from his downed friends with people giving him strange looks, 'So I'll just keep running. Eventually it has to get tired and leave this place.' At least he hoped so.

Otherwise he'd no idea how he was going to defeat it.

XxX

(Elsewhere – Soccer Field – Karin)

The black haired girl had been getting weird vibes recently, reminding her of the time when she sensed that boy's spirit inside of that little bird. She begged her brother Ichigo to help the boy in any-way he could, and was relieved of such when she felt her brother had done just that.

This felt similar. She kept looking at the sky while wearing a red baseball cap, a grey t shirt underneath a sleeveless black tank-top with a number seven beautifully embedded into the shirt, black shorts reaching her knees, and sneakers on her feet.

"Karin! What the hell?" One of Karin's guy friends, a brown-haired-boy, wailed at her after the black haired girl had booted the soccer ball into their other friend's face.

"Man, Karin, you've really been spacing out lately. Sup with you?" Another boy asked her, this one had blond hair.

"You're not still mad 'cause we wouldn't let that Naruto-kid join our team are ya?" A green haired boy guessed, shrugging his shoulders, "Look, I know you like him and all, but we can't have freaks who believe in ghosts on our team. You feel me?"

A glare from the black haired girl made the three boys from Karin's team cower as they made immediately backed away from her and wailed. Karin merely fixed her red cap, "Sorry guys, I just don't feel up for soccer today. I'm gonna head home." Karin excused herself, pivoting on her heels and walking away from her friends.

Her friends each breathed a sigh of relief.

"Man… what's eating her?" The blond haired boy asked his other friends in a whisper of a voice.

"I dunno, probably just girl-trouble." The brown haired boy ventured a guess and the others just accepted it as the most likely reason, not wanting to dwell on the matter for long anyway. Karin was Karin. She'd be fine after a day's rest or so.

'Geez. What's wrong with me? I can't focus on anything today,' Karin mused while biting her thumb, trying to put her finger on the reason why she was feeling like the boogeymen was going to pop up any minute now, and slaughter everyone in its sights just because it could.

Karin's musings and walk home ceased as a shadow came over her head. She looked up curiously, seeing the guy who was associated with her brother Ichigo and that strange bird who cried out for help, "Hey, you're Ichigo's friend aren't you, the bird's uncle?"

"Hmm." Yep. He was definitely Ichigo's friend. Both boys with the physiques of two grown men didn't talk much except for the occasional hum. Karin took notice of the huge boy's rapid breathing and the sweat coming off of him.

"Why are you so worn out? You look like you've been running a marathon." Karin stated as Chad attempted to steady his breathing. The big boy didn't get long to relax as he felt the fiendish being's presence lingering behind him, forcing him to take evasive action by grabbing Karin and flipping her over his shoulder before diving out of the way of the being as it crashed into the dirt ground and cratered it.

Karin's friends looked toward her hearing her scream and feeling the tremor which ruptured the ground, "What in the word just happened?" The blond haired boy wondered to his two guy friends, trying to look over at the girl but the dust from the odd explosion obscured her from them.

"You don't think ghost-boy did it did ya? He might be angry at us for talking shit about him?" The green haired boy shivered.

"C'mon dude, that's ridiculous. He's nowhere in sight. But just in case let's stay back and watch this play-out," The brown haired boy suggested nervously, his other friends nodding in agreement with him since neither of them wanted to mess with Naruto.

Chad placed Karin on her knees, "Are you alright?"

Karin was undoubtedly shaken up from the sudden eruption of the ground, "What in blazes just happened?" Chad couldn't give her a plausible answer without sounding crazy, so he stood up, carefully trying to pinpoint the cause of the destruction but could only see a blob of blackness.

'I can sort of sense its presence, but outright seeing it is a step too far for me I fear.' Chad mused monotonously, not noticing Karin's eyes go wide as the dust cleared up, and the blur to him slowly starting stalking them like a couple of trapped rats.

"What a disgusting creature." Karin murmured, seeing the creature as clear as day. A look of shock appeared all over Chad's face as his perpetually closed eyes opened a bit to look at the girl and enhanced his surprised look.

"Wait? Are you trying to tell me you can see that thing?" Chad asked to make sure.

His question immediately threw Karin off, "Yeah. Of course I can." The girl shivered as the creature's tall frame slowly advanced on them. Its body was bulky, it had a hole in the middle of its chest, two s-shaped letters running down its shoulders, and its mask resembled that of a lion's face. How could Ichigo's friend _not_ see it? It was huge for crying out loud!

"C'mon big guy, you have to see it! Look! Look!" Karin prompted him to look forward but Chad's shocked eyes were glued on the girl.

The creature rubbed its hands menacingly together at the prospect of absorbing a terrified Karin and a bewildered Chad into its being. If it had a tongue it would've brought it out of its mouth to wet its lips just sniffing the delightful reiryoku the two were unknowingly emitting.

It was for this very reason why it suddenly stopped and sniffed the air a couple of times, a monstrous grin curving itself into its face as it turned away from Karin and Chad.

"He stopped!" Karin said aloud for Chad's sake. The big security guard stared at the blob, wondering why it had stopped for before an ear-splitting shout gave him his answer.

"KARIN!"

"N-Naruto?" Karin blinked. Why would he be here for? "Naruto stay back if you can see that creature!" Karin shouted for Naruto's benefit before an orange blur tackled the creature away, leaving Karin gawking as was Chad. The creature then got rocketed toward the sky, the orange blur following it and easily getting above it to tremendously send it crashing into the ground with a resounding crash.

The explosion of dust caused Karin and her friends to scream instinctually while Chad just placed his forearm above his forehead, "Did Naruto really do that?" She knew the boy was strong for a kid his age and height but to have enough strength to send a creature that size into air and down again, well it went without saying he was the strongest kid she'd ever known.

Her friends were tempted to run over and see what all the commotion was about but ending up wincing as the cause for the damage came strolling out of the dust and toward Karin, "Uzumaki!" They whispered together.

"Let's get outta here. I don't wanna get on his bad side." The brown haired boy suggested to his friends, the others nodding along with him as they took the intuitive to sprint away from Naruto before the mad boy decided to come looking for them for one reason or the other they didn't want to know.

"Karin…" Naruto grinned. His breathing was a tad heavy from him running around a lot looking for his friend, before his breathing quickly went back to normal due to his high stamina.

"What are you doing here?" Karin asked.

"Looking for you of course," Naruto's grin only grew wider at his friend's confused expression. "I saw a bunch of those things over there littering the town and I just had to rush here to make sure you were safe."

"What? Are you trying to tell me there's more of that creature running around town?!" Karin yelled, causing Naruto to recoil as he waved his hands around defensively.

"Wah! Yes! They're looking for anyone spiritually aware enough like you and me!" Naruto explained hurriedly.

"Damn it!" Karin cussed.

Naruto looked at Chad with his eyes squinted, "Hey, who's the big guy? What's he doing here?"

Karin jerked her thumb at the stone-faced Chad, "Oh. Well this is Ichi-nii's friend. I was lucky enough that he was able to save both our asses when that thing drove in on us." Karin lifted an eyebrow when she noticed Naruto lower his head while clenching his fists, "Hey! What the heck's wrong with you knucklehead?"

Naruto glanced up at Chad with tears in his eyes, "You protected my friend. Thank you so much sir!" Karin and even Chad both gave the blond haired boy bizarre looks at his teary eyed thankful stare at Chad.

"Really, it's fine. I lured that thing here by mistake." Chad clarified honourably, but Naruto's appreciative look would not cease as he grabbed Chad's hand and shook it fiercely, causing Chad's eyes to widen as he felt as if Naruto touching him was causing something similar to water to pour out of his arm.

"Stop doing that!" Karin commanded and slapped Naruto's hands away from Chad's massive one with the big guy glancing at his right arm strangely, "Big guy said it was alright didn't he? Honestly, you're acting like you've never had a friend before idiot." Karin said insensitively.

Naruto lifted up his shoulders before dropping them back down, "I don't have many friends. Hehe. I can probably count on one hand how many friends I have in my short life. So you see I gotta protect the ones I do have." Naruto elucidated casually, stretching out his legs for the battle while Karin looked at him with wide eyes.

"Naruto…" Karin said softly.

Naruto stood up and gave Karin a thumbs-up, not caring how cheesy it was, "You and Yuzu-chan are two of my precious people! I'd do everything in my power to make sure you're both safe and sound."

"Oh brother, did you really just give me the thumbs-up? How lame," Karin deadpanned at Naruto.

"Heh." Naruto said amusingly, spinning around as the creature finally got up to its feet looking indignant. "It's not lame. The only time it's ever lame is when someone gives you a thumbs-up to promise you something, but breaks that promise. Not me though, I keep my promises even if it'll kill me in the end!"

"Hmm." Chad let out in agreement with Naruto. If anyone knew about keeping promises then it was him. He promised his friend Ichigo he'd have his back one way or the other, and told his dear grandfather he wouldn't use his fists unless it was to protect people.

"Not you too big guy," Karin stressed. God she was surrounded by wannabe cool guys.

Naruto pointed his finger at the hollow, "Hey, you, you bastard! Whaddya think you're playing at attacking my friend like she's a hot bowl of streaming ramen just waiting to be eaten?" Naruto bellowed indignantly, "You better answer me before I laid the smack-down on you!"

"You idiot! What exactly makes you think that thing can talk!" Karin bellowed, only to flinch once the deep, gravelly, warped voice of the creature sounded out throughout the air.

"**Actually, child, your lover's right. I can talk perfectly well. Why do you think I was able to track that human with such delicious reiryoku here? But now this boy's showed up it changes things for the better. Mmmmm. His power… smells tasty. I can't wait to feast on his soul.**" The hollow growled, causing to Karin bristle at being identified as Naruto's lover.

"Lover? You must be outta your damn mind if you think I'd date that knucklehead you freak of nature!" Karin hollered at the hollow, "We're friends, don't mistake that for everything else bub!"

"Hell yeah!" Naruto agreed with a grin on his face.

"**Aww. Allow me to rectify my mistake. You three are my meals. I'm going to devour you all."** The hollow clarified. "**Remember the name: Bulbous G, the hollow whom you all had the pleasure of becoming a part of!"**

"Remember the name Naruto Uzumaki, because I'm the kid who's gonna send your heartless ass packing off of the face of the planet bub!" Naruto corrected the hollow now known as Bulbous G's mistake as he stood protectively in front of Karin, something the black haired girl took notice of.

"**You've got a smart-mouth. Hehe. I like that. I like that a lot. It'll make the experience of sucking your reiryoku out of your body that much more pleasurable." **Bulbous G announced, quickly halting any resort once it seen Naruto open his mouth to probably make a snappy comeback.** "Preferably I enjoy my meals with some melted cheese on top for flavour, so don't say you don't taste good, because you **_**will."**_

Naruto snapped his thumb and index finger together, "I knew it! Those hollow bastards do use cheese on people to give 'em extra flavour! See! I'm not stupid. I've got brains!"

Karin ignored Naruto's boasting as she flinched from the creature's declaration, 'Reiryoku? What in the hell is this nut-job talking about?' She looked at Chad to see the big man still eyeing his arm pensively, 'Sup with big guy? He's been eyeing his arm like a hawk-eye since Naruto shook his hand… that knucklehead.' She had to admit it was pretty nice of him to care so much about her and her sister, Yuzu. Speaking of Yuzu, Karin had to wonder if her twin sister was safe.

"Naruto, what about Yuzu?" Karin asked quietly, eyes shifting to the creature as it looked ready to attack them at any given minute.

"Yuzu-chan's A-Okay. I wouldn't have come here if she wasn't." Naruto eased Karin's worries while keeping his eyes locked on the hollow. Damn how he wished he had taken a kunai knife out with him. It would've made things so much more easier for him.

"Good." Karin released a small sigh of relief, "Don't you think we should get on outta here before this creature attacks us?"

Naruto shook his head with a huff, "Nah. I got this guy. He ain't no match for me."

Karin grabbed Naruto's shoulder, "Don't be an idiot. What makes you believe you can beat that disgusting thing you lame brain moron?!"

"I dunno." Naruto confessed, "Ruthless aggression maybe."

"Yeah. Right. Because throwing wild kicks and punches like a damn brawler is soooo going to save our asses." Karin said sarcastically.

"Well excuse me 'Mrs Runaway a lot.' I'm sorry I ain't got chicken legs, but I finish what I start even if it kills me." Naruto argued in return, glaring at Karin who glared right back at him with even more intensity.

"You jerk! You're gonna end up getting yourself hurt with that kinda reckless thinking!" Karin argued, pushing her forehead against Naruto's.

"Who asked?!"

"Uhm, the girl who you're trying to save, you idiot!"

Chad watched the duo strangely while they pushed their foreheads against each other's, gritted their teeth, and glared angrily at each other, 'Hmm. I can tell she's Ichigo's sister, because she has his temper.' The creature apparently had enough of the youngsters' squabbling because it chose that time to launch a full on charge at Naruto, Chad, and Karin.

"Hmm. It's coming." Chad told Naruto, tapping the kid on the shoulder and effectively ending his argument with Karin.

Naruto had a confused expression on his face before he turned to see the hollow running after them with gleams of yellow in the black voids it called eyes, "Bring it on, you bitch!" Naruto shouted challengingly, determined to meet the hollow half-way with a full on charge just before Karin could grab his shoulder.

"Naruto!" Karin yelled with her hand forward due to her failed attempt to grab a hold of Naruto.

"Hmm. His speed is outrageous." Chad noted.

"Damn it. That knucklehead never stops to think." Karin growled. A surprised look quickly came over her face seeing Naruto spear the hollow directly to the ground, crating it effortlessly, "How is he… doing that?"

Chad was surprised that Naruto could even see the creature perfectly much less send it flying like he himself had sent that other strange blob of blackness away a number of weeks ago when it had supposedly been after that nice talking bird. Chad was positive he saw his good friend Ichigo dressed like a samurai and holding a massive sword which he used to send the bird over to the other side or something.

The day seemed like a dream to Chad for one reason or the next he didn't know.

"**How dare you! You are nothing but a worthless human! You should not have the power to tackle me to the ground like that. You're nothing but an insect to me you foolish human!" **The hollow bellowed, sitting up only to immediately be sent back to bed as a spinning kick was smashed into his face by Naruto.

"Well, this worthless human just turned valuable, chump!" Naruto gloated, releasing the air from the hollow's lungs with an elbow drop to its abdomen. The hollow groaned painfully, letting out another excruciating gasp from the punch it attempted to smash Naruto with, but the speedy boy blurred away from it leaving it to assault itself.

"**Ouch!"**

"Stop hitting yourself." Naruto quipped tauntingly, bouncing on his toes like a boxer. He abruptly recoiled as a rush of memories hit his head like files being saved on a hard-drive. "Ouch. What was that? It feels like a movie just played in my brain starring me roundhouse-kicking and punching hollows' masks into pieces." Naruto blinked as a number of 53 came into his head.

"Huh? I think I just beat Fifty three hollow-chumps?" Naruto wondered to himself only to flinch from the sound of Karin's voice.

"Naruto you idoit, quit dozing off, the creature's charging you down!"

"Oh right." Naruto said, finding himself being lifted off of the ground via the hollow's angry stomping toward him, "Round two it is, huh? Haha. You're going down." A confused expression came over Naruto's face as the hollow stopped just out of range from his personal space as if it was stretching. It then skyrocketed upward after gripping a handful of the ground, throwing its arm out to the side to release a flurry of dust into Naruto's eyes.

"MY EYES, MY EYES!" Naruto screamed, lifting up his head and covering his eyes, "He got me in my eyes!"

"That bastard." Karin cussed, angrily watching the hollow take advantage of the opening it had dirtily created by striking Naruto in his belly, releasing some air from his lungs and saliva from his mouth as well as sending him sprawling across the ground, "Naruto!" Karin and Chad ran over to the blond with Karin sitting on her knees to help the blond up, her hand resting on his shoulder.

"C'mon Naruto, don't let that stop you now." Karin encouraged him while Chad hesitatingly moved his right hand to sit on Naruto's shoulder after weighing the options pensively.

'I'm not sure why, but I feel as if I touch the boy something may come pouring out of me. I need to know this.' Chad reflected, gripping Naruto's shoulder in what he hoped came off as a comforting manner. He could feel his arm vibrating as if an earthquake was happening inside of his arm, 'It almost feels like a massive dam is about to get utterly eradicated from a huge amount of water reacting violently to a strange magnetic-like force coming from the outside of it… am I absorbing something from the boy?'

Meanwhile Naruto was oblivious to his chakra being sucked away into Chad's right arm by the big boy as he shook his head with no visible damage on him despite getting smashed away by the hollow, "Yeah, I'm okay, Karin. He can't hu-." He didn't get to say anymore because a blinding light from his left side inexplicably appeared, forcing him and Karin to cover their eyes with their forearms, "What the hell?"

The normally stoic Chad had a face full of shock as he witnessed his right arm morph into a luminous white blur, 'What is this kid?' Were Chad's thoughts as the light faded away to reveal his arm very much changed. Instead of tanned his arm was now a coal black, iron-steel-like armour with a red design running down the middle of it. At the top of his giant arm was a gap as if he could refill it with ammo.

The most surprising thing which startled Chad was that he could now sense something flowing through Naruto. Maybe it was the boy's energy he was feeling and somehow absorbed into his arm to unlock this strange upgrade.

Chad looked off into the distance with his eyes opening wide, 'I… not only feel Naruto's power, but also Ichigo's! How… how are they so… powerful?' Bulbous B drooled at the upgrade of Chad's power, catching Karin and Naruto's attentions, who both lowered their forearms and glanced at Chad's direction…

"…"

"…"

Needlessly to say, they were speechless.

"Whoa. What happened to your arm big-guy?" Karin asked, gawking at Chad.

Chad looked at the girl calmly, "Beats me." His answer confused her, her puzzlement only enhancing once Chad looked at Naruto, "The moment you shook my hand I felt as if I was absorbing some of your energy, Naruto. The last time I placed my arm on your shoulder appeared to be the clincher… now this arm is born and I feel enchanted by this newfound power."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly whilst Karin gave him and Chad strange looks, "Oh. You must mean my chakra. Haha. I didn't know anyone could absorb chakra. That's pretty badass if you ask me."

"Chakra? What the hell are you talking about?" Karin asked.

"Chakra, the life-force of which all ninjas like myself have. With it I can do all kinds of neat things. How else can you explain how I'm the strongest most badass kid in school? Watch I'll show ya one of my cool techniques!" Naruto excitedly put his hands together in his most familiar sign, "**Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu**!" A clone popped into existence next to Naruto, surprising Karin who jumped back in shock and fell on her backside.

"Whoa! What the heck are you, some kinda otherworldly moron?" Karin asked demandingly, lost for words as she saw the two Narutos grinning happily at her as if a weight had come off of their shoulders, 'I knew this nut-job was weird before but this is practically insane! Not to mention big guy's arm looks like a chunk of metal!'

The original Naruto leaned in closer to Karin and threw his arms around her neck, making Karin grimace at him, "But I'm yours and Yuzu-chan's otherworldly moron, Karin!" Naruto affectionately rubbed his cheek against Karin's, the black haired girl's grimace increasing while the hollow got a deer-in-the-highlights look on its concealed face.

"Get off of me lame brain!" Karin demanded but Naruto only chortled in response, not caring that the hollow had a look of realization on its face.

"**Now's my chance to feast!" **Bulbous B roared, sprinting toward the three youngsters.

"Naruto, get your head in the game. That creature-thing's coming!" Karin warned, trying to push Naruto away from her, but the stubborn boy doggedly held onto her for all she was worth.

"Nah. Don't worry, he ain't a threat." Naruto grinned reassuringly, making her stare at him with a deadpan look on her face before the look of anger appeared on her face once again as Bulbous B continued to close in on them.

"Naruto, move!" Karin yelled commandingly, her voice lowering to a whisper once Bulbous B towered over them and was halted from crushing them by a mere giant hand in comparison to hers and Naruto's since they were little, but the hand was still rather small to Bulbous B's, "Huh? Big guy blocked that creature's attack like it was nothing."

"Yeah! Of course! He made some of my power his own power, and 'cause I'm awesome that automatically makes him awesome!" Naruto explained as if it was obvious, still holding onto his second dearest friend after Yuzu while Chad calmly stood in front of them with his weaker arm blocking Bulbous B's arm from pointlessly trying to hit Naruto on the back since the hollow wouldn't have been able to hurt him if he had to shield Karin from Bulbous B's attack.

"**NO! There's no way you should be this powerful from getting my meal's power! It's not possible!" **Bulbous B screamed in outrage. He was meant to absorb them all into his being, not get stopped by this human.

"You won't be eating anyone." Chad assured Bulbous B calmly, the tip of his right arm lighting up with a crimson red glow, while his hand slowly started clenching to form a fist of absolute power.

"**Why is that?"**

"…Because you're already dead."

Within that moment Chad's right arm was propelled outward and nailed Bulbous B directly in the golf-shaped hole in its chest, causing it to release a scream of immense pain as it was shattered into many pieces that fell to the floor along with its sickly black blood.

"…"

"Whoa wicked awesome." Karin stated in awe of Chad's power, relaxing slightly as Naruto let go of her.

"Badass!" Naruto said cheerfully, "How are you feeling after that epic win big-man?"

"Hmm. I feel reinvigorated by this surge of power flowing through my veins. I'm not sure whether I should be thanking you or resenting you for this gift I've received. I guess it's just the way you look at it. I could feel honoured to be chosen to help people live while those fiendish things continue to slither around the earth, or I could be ashamed that my arm's like this, although I feel like I could switch it off any time like a tap." The stoic-boy told the younger kids honestly.

"You should cherish the power that the great Naruto-sama had bestowed upon you man!" Naruto shouted in a haughty manner, an arrogant grin spreading across his face which immediately turned into a goofy one as Karin bashed him on his head to get him to tone down his arrogance.

"That's not something to be proud of knucklehead. Ugh. I swear you're worse than Ichi-nii." Karin frowned, her words causing a saddened look to appear on Naruto's whiskered-marked face as he remembered the conversation he had with Yuzu earlier about how her and her siblings' mother passed away, forcing Ichigo to more or less cover himself up in a shell to cope with the pain of losing his mother.

"Hmm. You did say more of those creatures are running around town, did you not, Naruto?" Chad asked.

"Yeah." Naruto confirmed unenthusiastically, causing Karin to give him a look of thoughtfulness at how unenergetic he sounded but she quickly passed it up to the seriousness of the situation. Naruto, as if sensing Karin's thoughts, smacked his fist into his palm to rally himself up, "I left a clone with Yuzu-chan. So no hollows will be snacking on her. That just leaves the rest of the town-folks."

"Hmm. Do you know why the 'hollows' started showing-up here?" Chad interrogated the boy.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "I was told that a Quincy-guy lured 'em here for some reason by Yoruichi-baachan."

"Quincy? What the heck are those?" Karin asked. "And I thought you didn't have any family-members knucklehead."

Naruto pointed at his clone who happily gave him a thumbs-up, "My clone can give ya the low-down on the Quincy's and the shinigami's history I got from grandma."

"Eh? Have you lost your damn mind?" Karin asked.

Naruto turned around, chuckling, "I dunno, maybe! Haha!" Naruto looked at Chad, "Alright man. Shall we go on a kickass battle-barrage? Uhm-."

"Yasutora Sado, Ichigo and a few of my other friends call me Chad." Chad said as if sensing what Naruto wanted to ask him.

"Alrighty, Big-Chad it is. Nice to ya, Naruto Uzumaki is at your service man. Let's go!" Naruto raced past Chad and Chad soon followed after him, leaving Karin and the clone alone.

"Wait a minute! You're gonna race away like that! At least bring Sado to my old man's clinic to see if he can do anything about his arm!" Karin shouted after the two, but the two were little more than dots in the distance before she even finished her sentence. Karin sighed, looking at Naruto's clone, "Well it looks like it's just you and me knucklehead."

"I'm glad you're safe Karin." Naruto-clone stated earnestly, banging its fist against its chest.

"Are you kidding me? You practically threw yourself into the frying pan idiot. Ugh. You're just like my foolish brother, acting all cool but not thinking what others would think if your dumb stunts get you maimed or even killed! Now c'mon lame brain, you've got a lot of explaining to do!" Karin ranted loudly, the clone looking at her like it was going to have a heart attack.

With that Karin grabbed the clone's ear and pulled it off home.

XxX

(Naruto and Chad)

Naruto raced through the streets of Karakura town with Chad following closely behind him, the little-boy having to remember to keep his acceleration down a notch so Big-Chad could keep up with him. Although with the amount of muscle Yasutora had in his legs, he was still quite the force to be reckoned with when it came to speed. And with this new power enhancing his already natural strength, Naruto was positive Chad could defeat Kiba with his pure physical strength.

Hey, maybe Tsunade-baachan would want to train the boy if she were here?

Who knows?

The sound of brakes being slammed could be heard echoing through the air as skid-marks were engraved into the ground by Naruto tremendously digging his heels into the ground to bring his pace to a sudden halt.

He looked around the area with a pensive look on his face while Chad stopped running to look at the boy, "Naruto… what's wrong? Why'd you stop for?"

Naruto straightened his composure, staring at Chad with a frown on his face, "Have you ever had mini films play in your head about you and Ichigo having a mini brawl?" Chad gave the boy a bizarre look.

"I think you're just imagining things."

Naruto shook his head in a stubborn manner, "No, no, no, no, man! What I'm saying is I'm running with ya and all of a sudden I get this weird memory of myself and Ichigo having a tussle before he takes me out!" Chad was still lost so Naruto decided to explain what he meant in detail. "It's like this…"

xXx

(Flashback – Moments Earlier)

"_GODDAMN IT!" _

_The hot-headed shinigami was beyond outraged while he marched at pace following the hollow known as Bobomaru's trail to the best of his abilities before it could hurt any innocent people… especially his sisters. Argh. If that scary-cat even so much as looked at his sisters, Ichigo would dust his blade off, turn it sideways, and stick-it straight-up his candy-ass. _

_The rude-boy persistently rubbed the smudge out of his eyes, "I swear I'm gonna make him pay for that! He and Uryu will get THEIR just desserts one-way or the other! I just got to find them first. And then…" He chuckled unmercifully, "-I'll give them the beating of a lifetime."_

_Ichigo was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the orange blur running at him until it was too late, "Oaf!" Ichigo let out, feeling his left side take a heavy blow, but nothing too serious for a man of his strength to shake off, but still enough to knock him down to the ground. _

"_Hey_, _watch where you're going damn it!" Ichigo growled warningly, grumpily jumping up to his feet and looking at the cause of his fall. _

"_Oh. Sorry mister." Naruto-clone apologised before getting a good look at Ichigo, "Wait? You're Ichigo! Whoa! Where'd you get that cool sword from? Wait? Are you a shinigami? Is that your Zanpakuto-thingy? Yuzu-chan never told me that. But then again she might not know."_

_Ichigo looked at the blond-boy with a lifted eyebrow, "How do you know of the existence of shinigamis?" He didn't question why Naruto could see him because something else was on his mind, something that made him angry, "And how do you know my sister? You'd do well not to call her 'chan' if you know what's good for you."_

"_Huh?" Naruto was confused as he crossed his arms over his chest, "What's up with ya man? Yuzu-chan's my best friend. I thought you knew that after yesterday when you hit me in my face… jerk." Naruto pouted in annoyance up at the lanky boy. _

_Ichigo scratched his head dumbly, thinking back to what he did yesterday, "That's right. Me and family when to that lame Spirit Hunter event and Yuzu brought some kid over to me so I could meet him." Naruto glared at the way Ichigo dismissed him as if he was some nobody, "So you were that kid, right?" _

"_Yeah." Naruto deadpanned. _

"_What's your name?" Ichigo asked the boy, "Baruto? Raruto? Fishuto?"_

"_It's Naruto, you bastard." Naruto yelled at Ichigo, causing him to let out a mocking laugh as his memory was finally jogged. _

"_Well I hope that hit I gave ya taught ya some manners," The orange-haired rude-boy had the audacity to chide Naruto about manners, "So-long as you don't diss my name or my hair, I won't diss yours, deal."_

"_Hmph. Deal." Naruto agreed. Now he really hated Ichigo. He just couldn't be himself around the guy, whereas with his sister Yuzu he could let loose and be as cheerful and enthusiastic as he wanted to be. The same definitely could be said for Yuzu's goofy father Isshin and even her sister Karin to a certain extent._

_But Ichigo, nope, it wasn't happening. The word fun didn't seem to be in his vocabulary. He had a no-tolerance attitude for tripe unless it was to wind-up those who had annoyed him in the past. _

_But other than that Ichigo was basically all about business no matter the situation. _

_Like now, Ichigo had his serious face on, "So you can see me in this form eh?" Naruto nodded at Ichigo's question, "Hm. I don't know how, and quite frankly I don't really give a damn how you obtained the knowledge of the shinigamis' existence, just don't go around telling Yuzu or Karin what I am. It would make it difficult for me to explain to them all of this supernatural-shit."_

_Naruto nodded his head in agreement with Ichigo, "Yeah. Yeah. I kinda figured that out for myself." _

_A smirk graced Ichigo's features, "It just goes to show that you're not as dumb as you look shorty." Naruto glared furiously at the lanky-warrior, receiving taunting laughs from him for his troubles, "Hey, since you know of shinigamis, you probably know that the area's been inflicted with an ant problem. Don't worry; I've already taken up the role of ant-exterminator. It shouldn't be too long until they're all gone."_

_Not being a stranger to quips and snide remarks, the shinobi-boy knew what the shinigami-boy was referring to, "Yeah Yoruichi-baachan told me some Quincy-person decided to go fishing, luring hollows here with bait."_

_Ichigo looked at Naruto, curiosity threatening to kill him like it killed the cat, "You know of the Quincies too?"_

"_Not necessarily, but the lady I met yesterday named Yoruichi does. She told me that you shinigami wiped out the Quincies many years__ ago." Naruto explained to Ichigo's shock._

"_Are you serious?" _

"_Of course I am! The Quincies' extinction was at the hands of the shinigami, 'cause they were disrupting the balance of souls between the human-world and the Soul Society! Man how old are you if you don't even know that?" Naruto ranted indignantly._

"_I'm not that much older than you, ya brat. I only got these powers because of that damned midget." Ichigo elucidated, causing a look of curiosity to appear on Naruto's face. "But whatever, there's more pressing issues to tend to." Ichigo's hand clenched into a fist resolutely, "So it's a revenge thing Uryu's after, huh? I'll have to find him and put an end to this conflict once and for all… right after I make sure Karin and Yuzu are safe."_

"_They're alright fine. I've already made sure of that." Naruto assured. _

"_What? How can you be so sure of that jackass? You're standing right in front of me!" Ichigo roared at the boy, causing him to smirk mischievously at him. _

"_Figure it out for ya-self bastard. My arsenal's loaded with tricks! There ain't a being in the universe that can hurt my friends, Yuzu-chan and Karin! So instead of worrying about your two already secured sisters, why don't you focus on your friends, like that Orihime-girl?" Naruto ranted and Ichigo's eyes widened in remembrance of the hollow he was fighting previously. _

"_Damn it! I got a runaway cockroach on the loose. It's unlikely, but the jackass may go for Orihime. The last I seen of the jackass, the thing was heading in the direction of my school." The cranky-shinigami grumbled. _

"_HA! You let a hollow get away from ya. You're as slow as a snail." Naruto jeered at Ichigo, angering the boy greatly as he swung a right roundhouse punch at him to which Naruto dodged it by back-flipping backwards, "What's wrong man? Is that overgrown shark-tooth of yours slowing ya down?" The speedster gloated, dancing on the balls of his feet while Ichigo growled in a beastly manner. _

"_Arghhhh! I've got no time for your childish games!" Ichigo groused exasperatedly, sending a roundhouse kick at Naruto, his temper increasing as Naruto avoided it again. His arm shot outward like a shotgun, but Naruto mesmerizingly leaped forward into a high barrel-roll, landing elegantly in a crouched position on Ichigo's arm, "Why you-?" Naruto implanted his foot into Ichigo's face, launching Ichigo several feet away from him. _

_Naruto dropped onto his feet while Ichigo forcefully stopped his momentum by rupturing the ground by digging his sword into the ground and whipping himself around his blade. The insolent-would-be protector grinned at the stunned expression on Naruto's face from seeing his skill and power all mixed into one savage package. _

'_Whoa, what power! He ripped apart the ground like it was made outta bread! He may be as tough as me!' Naruto mused._

_Ichigo took advantage of Naruto's daydreaming by holding onto the hilt of his Zanpakuto, stretching himself backward to build his momentum up, letting go of the hilt of his zanpakuto while coming forward as if he had released a stone on a slingshot. The speed of which he was able to fire himself at Naruto surprised the boy, who wasn't able to react in time and paid the consequences by receiving a brutal clothesline to his neck courtesy of Ichigo. _

…_Free of change._

_Ichigo's own eyes widened as he then flew through a cloud of smoke after hitting the rude-little boy with his clothesline. He rolled to a stop, looking to where he had struck Naruto with a tremendous scowl on his features._

"_Argh. The jackass must've escaped."_


	5. Explosion! Take to the Skies, Phoenix!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Naruto**

**Hm. That's some food for thoughts mans on the Dangai Ichigo vs Biju Naruto thing. After all Ichigo is physically for more stronger than Naruto. You know what would be funny, if Naruto and Ichigo were having a nice walk up the mountain side for whatever reason only they know, with Naruto powered up in Biju mode and Ichigo walking along him in his, what I like to call, semi perfect Bankai form. I would call it perfect Bankai form, but you know, the manga rebukes that.**

**That's cool with me. **

**Naruto would be like, "Man. With all this power I have I could beat the stuffin outta you man."**

**Ichigo would be like, "Bitch please." Walks over to a mountain, cocks his fist back, punches it, and watches it shatter into tiny little pieces. **

**Naruto: "Well that's just not fair."**

**Ichigo smirks: "When you can do that, then come chat to me about whom stronger between you and I."**

**Naruto: "Son of a bitch." **

**Hehe. So Ichigo has the strength and Naruto has the trickery, aka Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and Substitute Jutsu. He can trick Ichigo by making him think he's over there when he's really standing behind him. **

**Anyway, here's part 2 of an originally super long chapter I just couldn't update last time because I couldn't be bothered. **

**Make sure to go to youtube and type in number one. Once you've done that you'll see Ichigo's number one theme from Bleach. Badass tune. Once that tune starts, y'know someone about to get K.O'D about Ichigo. There's only one person I can think of whom had the power to stop Ichigo's number one tune. Y'know who that is...**

**Aizen-dono!**

**Mr Know-It-All Aizen-dono. Good villain. He's my second favourite Bleach-villain after Jin Kariya-sama.**

**And already strings are getting pulled. **

**Enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**Explosion! Take to the Skies, Phoenix!**

"-And that's how Ichigo took out my clone after it used its superior speed to embarrass him… that'll teach the bastard to punch me down like I'm nothing but a toddler to him, dattebayo." Naruto relayed the info he'd gotten from his clone to a shocked Chad. He had known about his friend's power right after awakening his own by absorbing Naruto's, but what he didn't know was that Rukia had given him his powers.

At least he would think it was Rukia. Naruto made it sound to him that Ichigo was kind of heated when referring to the 'midget'. Chad couldn't think of anyone else other than Rukia that could get underneath Ichigo's skin.

The two argue like an old married couple and were generally always around each other during school-days, leading people to believe that the two were in a relationship to which Ichigo flatly denied without hesitation.

"Ahhhh. So it seems like you gain whatever knowledge your clone obtains, how interesting Mr Uzumaki." Naruto flinched. That wasn't Chad's voice. It sounded too relaxed.

Both Naruto and Chad turned to see a blond haired man covering his goofy grin with a white and green striped fan in his hand standing next to a huge muscular man and two little children who both had weapons with them. Chad wasn't surprised to see the two children since he had already sensed their power-levels, which was more than the advantage kid their age should have but still not as strong as him or Naruto.

"Don't spook a guy like that man! It ain't cool man." Naruto complained childishly, spotting the meekly purple haired girl who was kind enough to show him the way to Spirit Hunter, "Hey, Ururu, sup?!" Naruto greeted cheerfully.

"It's nice to see you again Uzumaki-san." Ururu smiled brightly, finding herself lifted off of the ground and twirled around by the chirpy shinobi after he dashed over to them faster than she or Jinta could blink. Her rocket launcher-like weapon dropped to the ground. She couldn't suppress the giggle which came from her mouth. Naruto's cheerful nature was infectious.

"Who's this Ururu, your boyfriend?" Jinta grimaced, only to regret that as a fist met his scowling face, slamming him to the ground with so much force a crater shaped like his body appeared on the ground, much to the worries of Tessai and Ururu, the latter of which was put down on her feet just before Jinta was pummelled to the ground.

"Jinta-dono!" Tessai panicked, kneeling down to Jinta's level who had a scowl on his red bruised face.

"Oooo. And that's a knockout blow from Uzumaki-san." Kisuke commented gleefully, doing his best impersonation of an announcer.

"Why'd you do that for jerk?" Jinta asked Naruto grumpily. The bangs of Naruto's hair casted a shadow over his eyes as he trudged over to Jinta, pushing Tessai out of the way who tried to protect the red-headed boy from the blond-jinchuuriki's wrath, but it was all for naught, as the butler watched Naruto grab Jinta by his collar, and lift him into the air.

"Hey! Let me go, jerk!" Jinta demanded, kicking his feet as he could feel Naruto's knuckles digging into his chin.

"So… do you like bullying others, huh?" Naruto asked. He knew a bully when he seen one and was determined to make this kid pay for trying to flex his superiority over Ururu, "Answer now, and I'll give ya a few free doses of knuckle-sandwiches." The smirk which crossed Naruto's face made the red-headed boy in his grip sweat nervously.

'What's with this guy? He ain't even a shinigami yet I can't escape his grip… is this why the boss was interested in this boy?' Jinta mused, desperately trying to pry Naruto's hand off of his collar to no avail, 'Damn! I can't reach my hammer… why'd Ururu have to meet this freak for?'

Tessai stood up, placing his hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Uzumaki-dono, I suggest you lower Jinta-dono to the ground unless you want to pick on someone your own size?" Tessai threatened gravely. The big man only wished he hadn't as he found his hand violently sent off of Naruto's shoulder right before the air and a cup-load of blood was released from his mouth. The cause of Tessai's pain was buried in his gut in the form of Naruto's fist.

"Tessai-san!" Ururu gasped, witnessing Tessai collapse on his knees while breathing intensely.

'What? Uzumaki-dono's only a kid. But then why has he done so much damage to me with one blow?' Tessai contemplated frantically, struggling to settle his breathing. Naruto may have broken a rib or two.

'This guy's insane! He took out the big oaf with one punch!' Jinta gulped, realizing that Naruto was on a next level. He flinched as Naruto turned his glare onto him.

"There. I doubt with ya. Now shut-up while I deal with this little coward!" Naruto ranted.

Jinta bristled, "Coward?"

"Ya heard me! Bullying someone who doesn't wish to fight just to prove your own supremacy! Guys like you make me sick!" Naruto spat while he dropped Jinta on his feet. The red headed boy clenched his hands into fists, his pride taking a heavy blow being outclassed by another kid, and then scolded by said kid as if that kid was his older brother.

"Well. Well. Well. I'd heard of your strength from a little birdie but to say my expectations were thrown out of the window would be like saying a hippopotamus is slim. Jinta-kun and Ururu-chan can take on full-established shinigamis, Uzumaki-san." Kisuke elucidated leisurely, getting a huff of arrogance from Naruto while Jinta's glare intensified at Naruto.

"Little birdie?" Naruto's eyes squinted at Kisuke. "What the heck are you talking about Shadow-eyes?" Naruto's squinty look morphed into one of accusation, "Have you been following me to capture my fighting skills on camera? You have, haven't ya? Don't lie! You must be one of those paparazzi-guys, huh? Why I ought to beat the shit outta ya!"

Kisuke chuckled with a bead of sweat falling off of the side of his head while Tessai looked at the boy bizarrely, and Jinta was mentally face-palming himself, 'And I lost to this guy, really? If THERE is actually any gods up there just kill me now.'

"Actually, Yoruichi-san told him all about you Naruto-san. They're good friends." Ururu supplied helpfully, smiling at Naruto who made an 'O' with his mouth.

"Well that makes sense." Naruto looked at Kisuke sharply, "So that means you're a shinigami like Yoruichi-baachan right Shadow-eyes?"

Kisuke faked confusion on his face, "What? No. What would ever make you think I am? What modern day hard-working boy such as yourself would suspect I, a mere humble shopkeeper, to be a powerful warrior capable of purifying hollows? Sounds Preposterous, right?"

Naruto wasn't impressed by Kisuke's trolling as he pouted in annoyance. Luckily for the bucket-shaped hat wearing man he was spared a rant from Naruto by the stoic-boy.

"I believe you are a 'shinigami', sir. I'm not sure what a shinigami is, but according to what Naruto told me my friend Ichigo appears to be a shinigami. Your power feels like his to tell you the truth." Chad explained monotonously.

"I wasn't expecting your powers to manifest to such a level my good man. But yeah, you're right; me and my man Tessai are shinigami just like Uzumaki-san's 'old lady'." Kisuke spoke jestingly, his fan concealing his big grin from the two.

"So if y'know grandma then does that mean y'know how to get these hollows to stop coming here?" Naruto asked hopefully, Kisuke's eyes gleaming a little sadistically.

"Oh. I don't know what made you think that Uzumaki-san. Perhaps it's because I'm such a handsome scientist in my humble opinion is why you think I could get Karakura Town out of this jam it's in." Kisuke contemplated jokingly. Naruto had a frown on his face while the others merely sweat-dropped at the blond-man.

"Damn it! Do ya know how to get rid of these bastards or not?" Naruto asked, fed up with Kisuke's stalling.

"All in good time my good man." The easy-going shinigami assured and Naruto's frown increased, "First things first." He looked at Chad, pointing his index finger at his enhanced right-armoured arm, "I take it you're going to want to know how your arm suddenly changed right?"

"Hmm" Chad nodded his head affirmatively, "I'm not quite sure what happened, but when I touched Naruto I felt as if I was awakening a surge of dormant power hidden within me, and then all of a sudden this arm came into life after keeping my hand pressed on Naruto's shoulder for a few seconds." Chad clarified, "I feel like I've absorbed some of Naruto's power, but I'm not quite sure where this power even came from to begin with. I take it you know."

"I have a theory," Kisuke half-confirmed, "It involves your friend Ichigo."

A frown marred Chad's face, "Something to do with him being a 'shinigami' right?"

"You catch on fast." Kisuke praised coolly, pivoting on his heels, "Come with me you two, because there is two paths, one is the blue path. If you follow it you will both wake up in your beds with no memory of neither hollows nor shinigamis, or you can take the red road, plunging yourselves further into the mystery hole of the otherworld and discover how deep the rabbit hole goes…"

The dark tone he used caught Naruto and Chad by surprise who both exchanged looks. Naruto soon shrugged, always ready for action no matter what, "Well I'm taking the red road. I already know about hollows and why they want me. If I'm gonna start something I might as well see it through to the very end."

Kisuke smiled at the boy's optimism while he lifted up Ururu's rocket launcher-thing with amazement all over his face, "Whoa, Ururu! I didn't know you had one of these rocket launcher-thingies. I saw these on TV, they're awesome!"

The shy girl nodded her head, "Yes. It is useful Naruto-san."

"Amen to that!" Naruto grinned at her, handing her the rocket launcher, and looking at Chad with a welcoming smile on his face, "The red brick road might be a bit lonely down there man. You should come along. Besides, Ichigo's your buddy, right? He'll obviously be there since he's a shinigami like Shadow-eyes here!"

Chad gave the boy a nod of his head before looking up at the sky, 'Ichigo… I'm not sure what's going on or what you are man, but I said I would have your back the day we made an oath to stick by each other. Wherever you go, no matter what you become, I'll always have your back, because that's what true friends are for.' Chad's armoured-hand formed a fist of resolution.

"Let's go," Chad murmured.

"Alrighty!" Naruto cheered, looking at Jinta with a smirk on his face, "I hope you can use that toy-hammer of yours for more than throwing your weight around?"

"Why you?! I'll show you this hammer's used for clobbering jerks like you!" Jinta huffed, lifting up his hammer on his shoulder for emphasis.

"Then let's see what you got then!" Naruto challenged.

"You'll be eating those words once you're sixth under the ground dumbass!" Jinta roared angrily, causing laughs to erupt from Naruto who danced on ahead of the others, "Hey! Where do you think you're going? Do not think for a minute that this is over dumbass!" Once he caught up to Naruto, the argument commenced.

"Kids nowadays are so rowdy. Wouldn't you agree Tessai?" Kisuke asked, leisurely fanning himself with his fan while Ururu fretted at the two arguing boys. Tessai stood up, his hand still on his stomach from the blow Naruto had given him. It was a lucky shot. It can happen. If you don't keep your guard up, no matter how experience you were, you were going to get hurt. Tessai would keep his guard up around the boy from now on.

"Yes boss, very rowdy indeed."

XxX

(Karakura High School – Recess area – Battle for Your Life )

"You jerks better stay away from Orihime!" Tatsuki shouted furiously, roundhouse-kicking a possessed student into his face. And to think the day was going so well. Well as good as it was going to be attending school.

She came to school with her friend Orihime, both passed by an ghost-man floating in the air, exchanged looks of concern before continuing on their way school, attended classes, and parted their separate ways for a period of time so Tatsuki could go to Karate-class.

One would have said it was the typical routine for the girls but for the one minor change of Orihime approaching Tatsuki right before she finished Karate-class to ask her sisterly-figure for some girl-talk. Of course she knew what the shy-girl wanted to talk about. One would have to be an idiot not to know, or Ichigo.

Tatsuki snorted. Her childhood friend could be so oblivious when it came to a girl's feelings.

That talk regarding the knight in shining armour in Orihime's life never came because the window of the school-building inexplicably shattered. At first Tatsuki thought that some raging kid may've broken it after a heated argument with the teacher and jogged off to get changed leaving Orihime to call out to her.

Orihime wasn't convinced as her dearest friend Tatsuki was that the accident involving the window breaking was merely coincidence.

Her fears were confirmed in the form of a white-masked, red eyed, Octopus-like creature with many tentacles and a feminine voice to go with it all.

The hollow-creature used her fellow schoolmates as pawns to attack her, quickly overwhelming her with the sheer numbers until her friend Tatsuki came storming out fully dressed in her school uniform.

"**That's right my minions, serve your master**." The lady-like hollow-Octopus purred at the kids it was commanding.

Tatsuki kicked another one of her classmates in his face and knocked him down before looking up at the direction of the voice with anger written all over her face, "You coward! Why don't you come down here and fight me yourself, jerk!" A smirk of cockiness formed on Tatsuki's features, "That's unless you're scare of little old me."

"**Oooo! So you can see me dear**." The hollow-octopus droned.

"Yeah. It's hard to miss something so disgusting looking." Tatsuki said crudely, causing the hollow to laugh.

"**Haha. You won't be saying that once I have you under my control dearie. You'll soon recognise me as your queen and you will do my bidding whenever I command you. Because when you have power why should you dirty your own hands when you can simply have your loyal soldiers do it for you**?" The hollow asked.

"You despicable bitch, using others to do the work is not how a true martial artist fights! You better get a couple of tentacles, pry them together, and pray to whatever devil sent you that I don't find a way up there, because if I do, you won't want to know what'll happen to you!" Tatsuki roared, dropping to her feet to spin-kick a few boys to the ground.

"**Oh. I'm so scared. Get her boys, but don't be too rough on her. After all she is an angel, a feisty angel, but an angel nonetheless**." The hollow gleamed lecherously, making Tatsuki snarl at the discrimination of her being a woman.

Women can fight too damn it!

The moment Tatsuki leapt to her feet the possessed school-boys swarmed all over her like a pack of wolves, horrifying Orihime who helplessly watched her friend's arms ensnared by two boys while another two trapped her legs, forcing her to scream out in frustration.

"Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime cried out, looking up at the octopus-monster, "Please leave Tatsuki-chan alone! I'll do anything! Just don't hurt her!"

The hollow grinned sickeningly at her, sending chills up her spine, "**Don't worry dear, nothing will befall her once she succumbs to my will. This whole school, no, the entire city will serve under the elegant might of lady Numb Chandelier**!"

"You're off of your head whack-job, if you think you can take over this town!" Tatsuki shouted doggedly, tussling in vain to shrug off her captors.

"**Oh really, well I guess only time I will tell. In the meantime you will become a par-**." Numb's declaration was cut short by an explosion which occurred from the far side of the recess-area, eliciting surprise screams from Tatsuki and Orihime while they along with the possessed kids found themselves violently sent tumbling to the ground, "**Oh what now**?!"

If Orihime and Tatsuki thought a hero was going to turn up and save them now, then their hopes were dashed by the raspy, ghostly voice which didn't sound heroic in any sense of the word, "**Argh. These humans don't make those fences like they used to. No matter, this place will do for a snack before I resume my fight with that damned boy.**"

Numb recognised that voice and seethed angry at it, "**You! What are you doing here you barbarian? I thought we had an agreement which stated you wouldn't absorb other hollows when we came to the human world**."

"Hollows?" Tatsuki said weakly, confusion evident on her face as she took the time to stand up on her feet and help Orihime up to hers. Orihime looked tentatively at the dispensing dust while the dogged Tatsuki stared bravely at it.

"**Is that you Numb-hime? Well you know what they say, when you can't soften your meat, leave it, go away, and come back when you're fully prepared to devour it.**" Bobomaru quipped. His yellowed eyes shined devilishly at Numb, making the self-proclaimed hollow-queen along with Orihime and Tatsuki widen their eyes once the dust cleared up to reveal it.

"A monster…" Tatsuki whispered and Orihime hyperventilated.

Numb caught onto what Bobomaru meant by its cheeky remark, "**Wait? Are you trying to say you couldn't deal with a human and because of it you opted to find me so you could absorb me for my power to deal with the human**?"

"**You catch on fast**." Bobomaru grinned to Numb's horror, "**My meal's a special brand if you know what I'm saying. One can't eat at the expensive restaurant without bringing the money to it first. So I'm sure you can see my dilemma. My meal's been right on my tail. I can almost taste the carrot-top he's that close**."

Orihime and Tatsuki flinched at Bobomaru's declaration, "I think he's talking about Kurosaki-kun. Remember, both you and I had that dream of Kurosaki-kun fighting my brother looking like one of those things." Orihime murmured.

Tatsuki nodded, "Yeah, my mind's still a little hazy, but I remember seeing Rukia and occasional flashes of Ichigo that day. So does that mean Ichigo's some kind of warrior fighting these beings or something?" Orihime wanted to believe so.

Looking at Numb, they could see the hollow sweating bullets while the strange orb embedded in Bobomaru's chest started to glow, "**No, you brute! You can't possibly do this! I won't allow it!**"

"**A meal doesn't have a choice in the matter**!" Bobomaru roared, pulling Numb toward it as if it had miraculously learned the force, making a grimace appear on Tatsuki's face while Numb cried out in desperation as it spun around insanely before disappearing into the orb in Bobomaru's chest.

"**There we go. Don't you just love low level subordinates. I do. They make for such wonderful meals to recharge the old batteries**." Bobomaru said unmercifully, Tatsuki snarling as she could still see the formerly known Numb's panicking face in the hollow's orb before vanishing entirely.

"You fiend!" Tatsuki snarled. "What kind of monster eats its own comrades for more power?"

"**I'm the kind of monster who is willing to do anything to move up in the world of us hollows, little girl! It's every hollow for themselves! The weak will perish or better yet will become no more than mere appetizers to the supreme hollows of our world! HAHAHA! ONLY THE STRONGEST WILL SURVIVE!**" Bobomaru declared sadistically, releasing its insane laugh that had Tatsuki fuming at it while Orihime checked on their fellow schoolmates.

"Tatsuki-chan, I think they're going to be A-Okay now! They're only knocked out now!" Orihime said brightly, quickly brightening down as she looked at Bobomaru again.

"Yeah. That's just wonderful Orihime." Tatsuki replied sarcastically, clenching her fists tightly, "Sorry, but we're not out of this mess until this freak leaves us alone."

Bobomaru smirked sadistically, stalking its prey which made the two trapped girls take an instinctual step back. It was going to relish devouring those two before it got back to battering Ichigo around. Last time the orange haired powerhouse only got lucky, but next time Bobomaru would destroy him one way or the other.

As Bobomaru slowly advanced in on the girls, it was sent face-first into the ground by a razor-sharp bullet of sorts which impacted into its head, "**AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!**"

"Huh? What just happened to him?" Tatsuki blinked. Orihime looked to where the object had been thrown only for her heart to well up with admiration as she saw the cause for the hollow's fall in the form of the cause of her shyness.

"Kurosaki-kun…" Orihime whispered and Tatsuki looked at her in shock.

"What did you say?" Tatsuki asked.

"Hey, Bob, where've you been hiding at man? You ran away so fast the frontal part of my blade didn't get the proper introduction it was itching to get off of ya." Ichigo said coolly, his right hand holding his zanpakuto on his shoulder while his left hand was bouncing a pebble on it. "I got nothing but time if you're up to trying it again, eh? Whaddya say, _friend_?"

"Ichigo…" An wide eyed Tatsuki murmured in debrief, "So that night really wasn't a dream. Ichigo did save us." Orihime had tears of happiness in her eyes despite the traumatic memory coming back to haunt her. She knew deep down that Ichigo had helped her brother find peace wherever he was.

Bobomaru jumped up to its feet and pulled out the pebble Ichigo had launched into its head as if it was a bullet, "**So my meal found his way here did he? Alright. I was hoping to snack on a couple of appetizers before getting to the main course, but I'm not one to pass up such an opportunity**." Bobomaru charged its way to Ichigo, much to Orihime's horror who couldn't help but cry out.

"Kurosaki-kun!"

Ichigo took up a stance, "I hope you like flying because I'm sending ya on a one-way ticket to the sky," With his zanpakuto held over his shoulder, Ichigo ate an audible smack to his face courtesy of Bobomaru's fist which made the girls flinch how Ichigo could brutally endure a blow that hard without even recoiling.

"…Okay. I'll play with you for a while." Ichigo said, a cocky grin on his face.

"**Human**." Bobomaru said in outrage. It then received a casual backhand to its face courtesy of Ichigo, sending it rolling away from Ichigo, "**Argh! Human! I will tenderize you and then eat you up, just you watch**."

Ichigo flexed the wrist he had snapped to slap Bobomaru away as if it were a fly, "Hm! Let's see what you got then." Bobomaru glared at Ichigo, spring-boarding itself at Ichigo, but failing to connect a shot on him as Ichigo easily side-stepped it while grabbing its hand and adding to Bobomaru's momentum by helping it on its way.

"Whoa. Ichigo's insanely strong. That creature can't even hit him. And when that thing does, its hits do no damage to Ichigo!" Tatsuki exclaimed while Orihime held her hands tightly together.

"That's good, right? It means Kurosaki-kun won't get hurt." Orihime said worriedly.

"Yeah. I hope. But that thing might have a trick to beat him. And the way Ichigo's toying with it instead of out finishing it off, makes me a little wary of how this fight will play out." Tatsuki said honestly, clenching her fists in frustration at her friend's arrogance.

Orihime let out a gasp, turning her head to Tatsuki, "What do you mean Tatsuki-chan? That Kurosaki-kun could be the maker of his own downfall?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying Orihime." Tatsuki clarified seriously, making worry appear all over Orihime's face as she turned back to the fight with both of her hands together as if she was performing a pray.

"Oh no."

Bobomaru rolled to a stop, standing up with its yellowed eyes trying to burn a hole through Ichigo, "**Don't think that you have me beat for a second! A meal can't overcome the one devouring it even if it's extra strong! It's only a matter of time before I put you in my mouth and bite away!**" A strong wave of air damaging the ground sent Bobomaru rolling away from Ichigo.

"What? Ichigo only swung his sword and that thing was sent flying away from him!" Tatsuki shouted in amazement of her friend's skill and power, 'Ichigo… where'd you learn how to fight like that? It must've been with Rukia. You've been around her a lot.'

"Amazing." Orihime whispered while Ichigo mockingly laughed at Bobomaru's expense.

"Ha. That was just a practise swing." Ichigo sneered.

Bobomaru pounded the ground angrily, "**Damn you! You need to cool down now**." Bobomaru put itself on all fours, opening its mouth with a shiny red glow lighting up inside of its mouth.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes, "What the hell's that?" To the horrors of Tatsuki and Orihime, the light materialized into a solid reddened basketball shaped orb.

"Ichigo, watch out! I think he's gonna fire that thing at you!" Tatsuki shouted warningly, getting a flinch from Ichigo before a scowl sat itself on his face. The cranky shinigami watched fearlessly while the crimson spherical ball expanded in size before it was launched at Ichigo whilst the cry of worry which erupted from Orihime's mouth.

"Kurosaki-kun, watch out!"

"**Cero**!"

The courageous-one merely lowered his left arm downwards, waiting until the cero got within range of him. Once it did Ichigo shot his arm up, bitch-slapping the cero into the sky, causing a gawking expression to appear on Tatsuki's face.

"Insane…" The karate-girl breathed out with a bead of sweat rolling off of her cheek.

Bobomaru defiantly refused to accept defeat by a mere shinigami, even a freakishly powerful one like Ichigo. Instead it opted to charge up another cero, firing this one at Ichigo with gusto which made Orihime flinch. When the cero didn't get anywhere near Ichigo before dissipating into tiny pieces, her nerves settled down.

As Ichigo rose his zanpakuto up from the air slash he did to pop the cero like a bubble, a feral grin spread itself across his features, "Y'know what they say, practise makes perfect." Ichigo quipped, making Bobomaru fume at him, "Was that really meant to cool me down? Because I'm all fired up."

"**Watch what you say, bitch, because it may come back to bite you in the ass!**" Bobomaru roared, repeatedly letting out ceros like a broken Gatling gun unleashing watered-down bullets that couldn't make it within the range of its targets as they kept falling lifelessly to the ground. Only in this case the ceros kept on getting eradicated before they could even invade Ichigo's personal space.

Bobomaru would let out growls while firing the ceros and Ichigo's mini shockwaves would slice them asunder while the boy making them would grunt.

"**Grrr**!"

"Argh!"

"**Grrr**!"

"Argh!"

"**Grrr**!"

Argh!"

"**Grrr**!"

"Argh!"

"**Grrr**!"

"Argh!"

"**GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR**!"

"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggh!"

"**STOP MOCKING ME**!" Bobomaru bellowed ferociously, choosing to let loose the strongest cero it had at Ichigo in the form of a really long lengthy blood red cannon beam of energy, Orihime and Tatsuki's eyes widening at the sheer size of it and how it was able to cover a wide radius, "**Gotcha bitch**!"

"Dodge it Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime pleaded.

Her wish was not granted. Instead Ichigo held his blade up straight, running forward and plunging himself into the cero, separating it in two like a magician, much to Bobomaru's chagrin. The hollow cried out an indignant, "**WHAT**?" as the Cero was defeated.

It was then forced to raise its knee to block a Godzilla-esque punch resoundingly, a mini shockwave shook the ground and the hollow's knee slightly, before it was sent spiralling away over to the small field of the recess-area.

''Heh. I haven't even got warmed up yet." Ichigo said with overflowing confidence surging through his veins.

His grin dropped while his head shifted to Tatsuki and Orihime. And for a second the girls could've sworn they seen the slightest amount of sorrow in Ichigo's eyes, as if he was saying, "I'm sorry." But just like that it was gone as Ichigo took off to end (purify) Bobomaru.

"Unbelievable. Ichigo's absolutely dominating that thing." Tatsuki said, still in awe of her friend's power, "Just… how did he become so… otherworldly strong? I have to see the end of this." Tatsuki ran forward, only to stop and look over her shoulder, "Hey! Are you coming or not Orihime? I'll head up without you otherwise!"

"Kurosaki-kun is…" Orihime whispered with her head lowered, her voice shaking a bit which had Tatsuki concerned for just a split second, "Is so fantastic! He was all like, "I'm Ichigo, and I'm gonna use my light-saber to slice and dice you to pieces!" Orihime giggled, doing her best impersonation of Ichigo's cocky voice, sounding and looking adorable while doing it.

Tatsuki let a smile spread across her face.

"Yeah. That fool really took that hollow-thing or whatever to the cleaners. Now all that's left to do is for him to hang it up to dry, let's go see how this ends!"

"Okay!"

The girls ran to where Ichigo was facing off against the hollow in time to see the hollow release a sickly black smudge into Ichigo's eyes as a last resort, making the boy angrily grab his eyes and bellow to the heavens about cheating SOBS with no honour.

"How low, it's no better than that other hollow it'd absorbed." Tatsuki snarled, witnessing the hollow take advantage of the opportunity it had shamelessly presented for itself by grabbing Ichigo's head with its two hands, cocking its own head backward, and then bringing Ichigo's forehead near to it while propelling its head to meet Ichigo's forehead in a head on collision!

Orihime flinched seeing the top part of Bobomaru's head sticking to Ichigo's, sickly black blood now covering Ichigo's head.

"Bastard." Tatsuki growled quietly, wondering why on earth the hollow decided to use the top part of its head to head-butt Ichigo instead of its forehead like most normal dirty warriors would do, but then again that creature was far from normal.

"**Momma always said I shouldn't play with my food but she's not here now is she**?" Bobomaru remarked, bouncing Ichigo off of the ground like a basketball, his zanpakuto dropping to the ground before Bobomaru drop-kicked him in his head, pushing the boy away from it.

One could see the black blood of Bobomaru falling in between its eyes.

Ichigo did a back-flip in mid-flight to coolly land on his feet after skidding backwards a bit and picking up dust as he did so. He stood up straight, the bangs of his hair overshadowing his eyes while Bobomaru grinned monstrously, picking up his dropped Zanpakuto.

"**This toy knife of yours is really heavy. It must be the secret to your strength. Huh? Admit it Mr Meal! With it I'll be able to slice and dice you to pieces like an onion**." Bobomaru dashed toward Ichigo, Ichigo's Zanpakuto in its hand while its yellowed eyes gleamed devilishly.

"Get out of the way, Ichigo!" Tatsuki yelled while Orihime prayed for Ichigo's safety.

Once Bobomaru got within Ichigo's radius, Bobomaru wished it hadn't. Ichigo, shooting his arm outward and shaping his hand like an eagle claw, effortlessly caught his bladed Zanpakuto, leaving Bobomaru speechless, "Excuse me, but this is mine." Ichigo said calmly, purging his zanpakuto from Bobomaru's grasp, resting it on his shoulder.

"**WHAT-? HOW-**?"

"Hmph. What kind of warrior do you take for, an amateur? Sorry to disappoint you, pal, but a pro like me doesn't get cut with his own blade." Ichigo stated coolly, a grin forming across his face which had Bobomaru fuming at him. "Heh. Don't feel bad chump. Any amateur would've made the same mistake."

Ichigo half turned his body to allow Bobomaru's fist to connect with his Zanpakuto, "**Don't you dare insult me… HUMAN**!"

"Hm. So I won't. I'll just get your flight ticket ready for take-off," Ichigo quipped, confusing Bobomaru before fear welled up inside of it as it felt Ichigo's muscles tense up, an azure blue aura shrouding his body, levitating the pebbles off of the ground while the dust started swirling around his feet ever so slightly.

"What's going to happen now?" Orihime asked softly, eager anticipation building up inside of her for the finisher.

"It's curtains time for that creature that's what!" Tatsuki grinned.

Her happy expression turned into a shock one once Ichigo spun around faster than she could blink, and proceeded to repeat the process, only much faster, each time the momentum of Ichigo's spinning grew in intensity until Ichigo became little more but a blur of dashing lines. A bloodcurdling scream erupted from Bobomaru's mouth, feeling devastating sharp cuts in its body, spewing blood from it while Bobomaru began to feel itself being lifted off of the ground by the gravity pull of the tornado that was Ichigo.

The typhoon caused the ground to gain many fragments of cracks on it while Orihime's hair flapped about in the ferocity of the strong wind it was emitting.

"Ichigo… what are you?" Tatsuki asked in shock.

As Bobomaru flew up, a gleaming ocean blue giant pair of wings and a head poked themselves out of the ground. Travelling up, the legendary bird-like fiery creature of prey ghosted through the ground and nailed the hollow directly into its golf-shaped hole in its chest, carrying it off to the clouds.

"A phoenix…" Tatsuki verified. "What incredible power Ichigo must possess to create something that-."

"Beautiful." Orihime finished in Tatsuki's stead with a starry eyed look on her face. Tatsuki looked at her, "Oh! I mean the bird! Yep, the bird's beautiful. Kurosaki-kun must be really gentle to have been able to make something so elegant. Yep, indeed he is."

"Righttttttt." Tatsuki drawled out. "Let's just go over to Ichigo and get some answers from him."

"Okay!" Orihime chirped. But as soon as both girls turned toward Ichigo, he was already gone. Gone like the wind, leaving nothing but the ruins of an epic fight between man and beast.

XxX

(With Ichigo)

The sound of a dropped boulder echoed throughout the air, debris dust flowing upward to the sky. The dust dissipated to reveal Ichigo in a kneeled position as if he was bowing down to his own reflection since he wouldn't bow down to any man or woman alive... even in a metaphor.

"Sorry, but I've got no time to stand around and chit-chat." Ichigo explained unnecessarily, standing up straight and looking at his Zanpakuto, "See. What did I tell ya on the way here? No sweat at all."

"_I never doubted your strength for a minute Ichigo. I am your strength. As long as you use me you'll always be strong_." The voice of his wise Zanpakuto-spirit's voice echoed calmly in his head. He had been hearing his voice ever since crying out for more power to defend his friend Rukia on the day he and his family visited his mother's grave.

It was a good thing she was there since his mind would've been clouded with revenge. Intact his mind was set on revenge on the bastard hollow responsible for his mother's death. The only reason he snapped out of his rage mode was because the hollow known as Grand Fisher went after Rukia, probably to cause him more heartache.

…Douchebag.

That was when this old man in the form of Ichigo's spirit sword made his debut. He asked what would Ichigo use his power for, and for Ichigo that was a simple answer. He would use his power for the greater good and his zanpakuto spirit said that was a good enough answer. After introductions were made a new, far more powerful, Ichigo was born.

Grand Fisher never saw the light of day again.

"Yeah. Yeah. I guess so old man." Ichigo said lackadaisically, a smirk coming to his face in remembrance of his new attack. "That attack was worth the amount of thought I put into it after I instinctively used it earlier on…" Without the phoenix of course, "-That might be my strongest move ever if I do say so myself."

His zanpakuto spirit begged a differ, "_No. I do have a move to show you which'll be your signature move only you and you alone will be able to pull off. That'll be your strongest move. At your current skill level you're not ready to master it._" Ichigo's zanpakuto spirit told him calmly, making him scowl.

"Whatever. At least I pulled this move out of my bag of tricks." Ichigo groused.

"_Yes. You can learn other moves. Still, I suggest you train to master other moves. You can't always rely on the old pull a rabbit out of the bag trick to bail you out of trouble_." The old man advised Ichigo, getting an internal nod from the haughty boy.

Thunder struck the sky, directing Ichigo's attention to the sky to see a bunch of hollows gathering together, "Guess I know where the party is." Ichigo raced off to the location where the hollows were gathering, "That jackass might be there. If he is, I'll wipe the playground with him!"

XxX

(In the Park – Moments Earlier)

"Put me down dummy!" Rukia yelled commandingly, riding on the back of a Naruto-clone along with its clone-brethren who had both seen her and Kon about to be absorbed by two hollows after a weakened Uryu had failed to kill them and rushed over to assist them. Rukia was initially shocked like Kon to see two lookalikes while Uryu was curious since he had sensed the boy's power spread all over town but didn't quite know the reason why.

"I don't need your help getting from point A to B." Rukia told the clone who still wouldn't drop her.

"Yeah, nee-chan doesn't need you to carry her, so put her down! The great Kon-sama demands you!" Kon shouted in Ichigo's body, only to squeak once he found himself violently held upside down by the Naruto-clone who was carrying him like a bag underneath his arm, "Okay, okay! Just don't' drop me alright!"

The clones sighed at the mod soul. They found it hard to believe that at first they thought Kon was Ichigo, and when to punch him down until Rukia glared at them, not wanting them to hurt Ichigo's body. Soon after the clones took-out the hollows with devastating shots to the hollows' faces, surprising Rukia, Kon, and Uryu to an extent the hollows begin assembling together in the centre of the park.

Uryu assured that he would protect the town-people in the name and honour of the Quincy, which confused the clones because they were sure that a Quincy had lured these devilish beings to Karakura town. Maybe the boy just wanted a challenge? After introductions were made the clones grabbed Rukia and Kon and raced here to help Uryu. Why on earth they done that was beyond Kon and Rukia, but they guessed that the clones felt some comfortable protecting them if they were near them cheering them on while they fight their would-be murderers.

Naruto-clone stopped running and brought Rukia off of its back like carrying a baby, placing the taller girl on the ground on her knees while the other Naruto-clone dropped Kon to the ground like a sack of potatoes, "Damn it Rukia! You sure don't make it easy for a guy to carry ya."

Rukia pouted up at the clone, smoothing out her school skirt while the other Naruto-clone leaped into the battle with Uryu who found himself surrounded by many hollows, "That's because I was quite capable of getting here myself, thank you very much. Hmph!"

Naruto-clone smirked mischievously, "Oh really, is that why you couldn't defeat those hollows who would've both done damage to you if Ichigo's lookalike and four-eyes over there didn't step in to help you out?" Rukia's answer to that question was to throw a slap at clone-Naruto, to which Naruto-clone dodged effortlessly, making her pout increase.

"Idiot." Rukia said, "And that's not Ichigo's lookalike. For your information he just happens to be preoccupying Ichigo's body so that idiot can be in shinigami-form."

"Huh? Ichigo's a shinigami? No wonder that punch he gave me yesterday felt so hard. Haha! I guess it makes sense since shinigami can't be seen by regular humans." Naruto-clone said cheerfully, grinning cheekily at the girl.

"So how are you able to multiply yourself in two, Naruto?" Rukia asked Naruto's clone.

The clone grinned widely, "Oh! Well that's easy, the boss used kage bunshin no jutsu to make tons of me and sent us all over town to make sure no one dies against any hollow stupid enough to challenge us." It noticed Rukia giving it a deer-in-highlights look and waved its hand in front of her face. "Hello, Rukia. Hey, are you even in there?"

'Incredible. He has enough reiatsu to make that many clones with enough power to take out the hollows Uryu had lured here with hollow-bait. Naruto-san… what are you?' Naruto frowned at the nonresponsive Rukia while a hollow leapt out of the group of hollows trying to gangbang Uryu and Naruto-clone and came straight for them.

"GET YOUR BUTT INTO GEAR ME!" The Naruto-clone alongside Uryu shouted at its clone-brethren, making Rukia and Kon snap their heads up to see the hollow charging in on them, much to their horror.

"I got this," Naruto-clone smirked, forming his leader's favourite hand-sign, "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**!" To the shock expressions on Rukia's and Kon's faces, another Naruto-clone submerged from a cloud of white smoke and tackled the incoming hollow before pinning it to the ground.

"Ah! Another one of him appeared out of nowhere!" Kon squeaked.

"I think he did that." Rukia guessed. It turned out to be right as the Naruto-clone which had summoned up another one held its hands at its side as if it was about to do a Kamehameha wave. A swirling blue-coloured wind gathered in the centre of clone-Naruto's hand, morphing into the shape of a rotating spherical ball.

Naruto-clone grinned and jumped high into the air, the blue ball of power spinning wildly in the centre of its hands before it sped downward to the pinned hollow and drove its right hand holding the sphere-shaped tennis ball right into its face, crating the ground and wiping the hollow and the clone holding the hollow out of existence.

"**Rasengan**!" Naruto-clone announced. It then jumped up to its feet and spun around to the gawks of Rukia and Kon. It rubbed the back of its head sheepishly, "I guess I kinda overdid it a little huh?"

Meanwhile Uryu was becoming frustrated with Naruto-clone's dogged assistance, not wanting to admit that the clone was doing better than him.

"Do you mind leaving me alone Uzumaki-san? I don't need your help taking out these smell fries!" A demonical growl from behind him made him flinch. Spinning around, he gritted his teeth at the sight of a wolf-like hollow ready to clump its teeth on him after leaping into the air.

"Damn." Uryu snarled, about to fire his spiritually made arrow at the hollow while his right hand continued to leak blood from the intensity of launching a dozen arrows at the hollows that just kept on coming. Relentlessly! He stopped himself from firing his arrow once Naruto-clone sped over his head and drop-kicked the hollow into its face with ferocity, shattering its mask and wiping it out of existence.

"Sorry, bub, were you saying something?" Naruto-clone questioned the lone Quincy cheekily, grinning at Uryu while the blue haired boy huffed indignantly.

"That was a minor slip-up, nothing to look into," Uryu told him as he pushed his glasses up with his _middle_ finger.

"Look. I know what those shinigami-guys did to your clansmen. Hey, if it were me I'd probably want reven-."

"I don't care about that." Uryu cut off the clone while it continued to batter the hollows away from them, "On the contrary, I think I might've sided with the shinigamis once I heard that story," This surprised Naruto's clone who was almost taken out by a hollow, but it evaded swiftly, and retaliated with an vengeful roundhouse-kick to its face, eradicating it.

That clone made a bunch of clones to fight the hollows so it could listen to Uryu's story, "My sensei always desired peace. He wanted to find a way for Quincies and shinigamis alike to coexist peacefully, but what do they do? Nothing! That day of my sensei's demise, a group of fiendish hollows cornered him. Not a single shinigami came into the vicinity until after sensei was eradicated by them!" Uryu told him heatedly, clenching his fist in remembrance of his grandpa's death.

A dark gleam shadowed clone-Naruto's eyes. This reminded the clone of Sasuke and how Naruto was told by the boy to shut up, because he didn't know what it was like to watch his whole family and clan got massacred in front of him. He couldn't understand Sasuke's pain then and he certainly didn't now.

The only way that Naruto could understand Sasuke's burden slightly, was for some uber bad guy to come outta nowhere and kill Yuzu-chan. Then and only then would Naruto begin to know how the lone Uchiha felt.

So he will _never_ understand Sasuke's feelings, but he would find a way home to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, because he made a promise to Sakura-chan that he would. And Naruto doesn't break his promises.

Uryu materialized his reiatsu-powered bow-and-arrow, persistently sending out bows of power despite the strain and fatigue catching-up on him, "Sensei was a kind man. He did nothing to deserve such a fate! That's why, I, Uryu Ishida, will prove the superior strength of the Quincy one way or the other."

"You're so dumb," Naruto-clone said nonchalantly, making Uryu spin to him with a look of anger on his face.

"What'd you just say?"

"You heard me? You're stupid. You messed up your own story! I thought you said your sensei wanted the shinigamis and the Quincies to live together peacefully! How the heck is you proving that you're the superior breed of warriors gonna fulfil his wish." Clone-Naruto explained to Uryu's shock.

The lone-wolf began to mull over the clone's words. Perhaps in his blind anger he had misjudged what his grandfather's said. No, that would be lying. The truth was he just didn't want to admit he was too weak to save his sensei from such a terrible fate.

"You… you make a valid point. Perhaps I misinterpreted what my sensei meant." Uryu admitted.

"Yeah." Naruto agreed, "Either-way we gotta get rid of these things man before they overload Karakura Town!" At that moment all of the remaining hollows gathered together in the centre of the ripping sky, two massive white hands prying open the very air itself like curtains to allow the hollows into its mouth.

"Whoa. What's that?" Clone-Naruto wondered in general curiosity, while Uryu, Kon, and Rukia stared fearfully as a comprehensive hollow with a long nose stepped out of the Garganta, scanning the World of the Living with its gleaming crimson eyes. The hole in its chest looked more like a tunnel due to its ridiculous size.

"A Menos Grande..." Rukia murmured in debrief. There was no way anyone of them could defeat something of such magnitude. They were finished! The whole town was finished!

"Wah! I don't wanna die yet! I still haven't even felt the heavenly feel of boobs!" Kon wailed. Rukia may have grimaced at Kon if her eyes weren't glued at the colossal form of the Menos Grande stalking the park as if it was observing it before taking it out.

"Hey, are we late for the party?" Rukia looked questionably at the Naruto-clone by her side, but it only grinned at her and jerked its thumb behind itself where the original Naruto was standing with a shocked Ururu, Jinta, and Chad. Kisuke and Tessai were very much relaxed like Naruto was.

"Hey, boss. Who are those guys?" Naruto-clone asked its leader, pointing its finger at Kisuke, Chad, Jinta, and Tessai.

"Shadow-eyes and the big butler-dude are friends of grandma." Naruto introduced the two, pointing at Tessai who bowed clone-Naruto's way, and Kisuke who waved at clone-Naruto, "Big Chad here is friends with Ichigo and Rukia. Oh! Hey Rukia!" Naruto greeted cheerfully, looking at the girl like he knew her.

"Huh? Naruto-san?" Rukia blinked. She was sure that she hadn't met that Naruto, whether it was the original one or not.

"Hmm. It seems Naruto gains the memories of what his clones experience when they dispel." Chad explained the theory Kisuke had given Naruto during their walk here for why he was receiving small 'movie-clips' from time to time. Rukia's attention was drawn to Chad's arm, "Yeah. Apparently I ended up becoming spiritually aware from being around Ichigo during school-days, according to Kisuke's other theory."

That sounded like he knew, "So you kno-."

"That you're a shinigami. Yeah." Rukia flinched at how straightforward Chad made it seem of her being a warrior of a higher status, "Don't worry about it." Rukia breathed out in relief before tensing up, the tremors of which the Menos Grande was making reminded her of the immediate danger.

"Whoa! Will you look at the size of that thing! Whatever shall we do to defeat it? Its size probably rivals that of Godzilla!" Kisuke shouted in faked helplessness, making the others give him owlish expressions while Naruto slapped his cheeks a couple of times to rally himself up.

The original Naruto then rotated his arm in a circular motion, "I guess I should take out this hollow now, right?" Ururu, Jinta, Rukia, and Kon looked at Naruto like he was on drugs before he began to trudge forward to the Menos Grande to wipe it out.

"Not so fast little Uzumaki-san." Kisuke said calmly, stopping Naruto from advancing any further by putting his hand on his shoulder, making Naruto look at him in confusion.

"Why? I can take it out no problem." Naruto assured, making Ururu's, Jinta's, Kon's, and Rukia's jaws drop.

"I know," Kisuke assured him in return, "But I'm curious how another rookie will flare against that Menos Grande." Kisuke's eyes glinted sadistically, sensing the one he had been referring to inches away from them, "He's here."

"What the hell's going on over here, a freaking festival?" Rukia's eyes widened hearing Ichigo's voice. They all turned around to see the orange haired shinigami trudging over to them, his zanpakuto held on his shoulder, and a pinkie cleaning out his ear. When Ichigo's eyes focused on his surroundings, he had to blink as he didn't quite believe what he was seeing.

"…Okay, I'll bite. Why is there an overgrown hollow looking like it needs to cut back on the steroids? Why is Chado's arm like that? And most of all why the hell is there three Narutos?!" Seriously, one Naruto was enough let alone three of them!

"Hey, Ichigo, sup!" The Narutos greeted him cheerfully, making Uryu scoff as he didn't even turn around to see the orange haired warrior.

"Two of them are just clones of Naruto. I met the original when a hollow was attacking your sister, Karin. I took it out after absorbing this little guy's power, which in return awakened my own power." Chad elucidated and Ichigo gritted his teeth at the thought of a hollow attacking his precious baby sister.

"So you can see me now. Did Hat-and-Clogs tell ya what I am?" Ichigo asked his friend who nodded his head in return, "Alright. My bad for not telling ya man, but I doubted you would've believed me if I did."

"Hmm. It's okay, I understand." Chad said.

Ichigo nodded his head before looking at Naruto, the one by Chad, "There's something I want to know. I fought you earlier. How the heck did ya disappear like the wind?"

"Uhm? Oh. Well that's because you were fighting my clone man." Naruto said, causing Ichigo to look at him owlishly.

"I… was fighting a clone?" Ichigo asked for some kind of verification.

"Yep!" All three Narutos chirped simultaneously.

This clarification had the effect of making Ichigo ball his hands into fists, gnash his teeth, and scrunch up his face in fury. How could he let a meddling kid hit him!? It wasn't even a kid! It was a clone of the kid! A _clone_! A fucking clone _humiliated_ him! 'Hruuuughhhhhhhhh! I hate this kid!'

Any gloating Naruto would've done to rub the clone's 'victory' into Ichigo's face died in his throat by the tremendous surge of power which came from Ichigo who subconsciously released it, cracking the ground around his feet like a spider-web, and shocking everyone barring Kisuke and Naruto of his eruption of power.

At first glance it looked like the three Narutos had three uncharacteristic serious looks on their faces, but a closer look would reveal that they were contemplating how to beat Ichigo if the orange haired older boy chose to attack him for what he felt was an insult to his pride in their own goofy way.

'Damn. How could a mere substitute shinigami have that kind of power?'

'That guy's insanely powerful!'

'Wow. I didn't know Kurosaki-san was that strong. No wonder the boss has been intrigued by him.'

'Damn it Ichigo! Can't you give a guy some warning first! I nearly had a heart attack here you should know!'

'Urahana-dono's expectations for the boy may be superseded at this rate.'

'Ichigo… you truly have reached a level I could only dream of reaching. Your strength feels reassuring.'

'He's asking for a fight. Well I ain't scare of him. I can take him dattebayo!'

Were the respective thoughts of Uryu, Jinta, Ururu, Kon, Tessai, Rukia and Naruto as six of them each gawked at the powerful-boy warrior standing before them. Kisuke, however, patted Ichigo on his shoulder to direct his attention on the Menos Grande.

"You best get to work dealing with the town's giant ant problem before it causes any damage." Kisuke advised Ichigo mysteriously, the orange haired shinigami glaring at Naruto, a glare which turned into a grimace when he saw the boy's 'focused' look.

It was Naruto with his pinkie finger wedged in his nose.

"Yeah. I'll deal with that thing no problem." Ichigo said, looking at Naruto who still had his finger shoved up his nose, 'Disgusting.' Ichigo grimaced, marching toward the Menos Grande until Rukia tried to stand in his way, but was stopped by Naruto-clone who ensnared her waist to stop her from getting in Ichigo's way.

"Ichigo, no, you're not ready to take on a hollow of that magnitude! Come back!" Rukia shouted commandingly, struggling to free herself from clone-Naruto's vice lock grip on her, "Let go of me already! Ichigo's going to get himself killed! This is madness!"

"No I'm not. Just sit back and watch!" Ichigo commanded in return, getting Rukia to stop squirming around in Naruto-clone's grip, but instead look at Ichigo softly, "You!" Ichigo addressed clone-Naruto holding Rukia with authority, "_Don't_ let go of her until I finish my business with that overgrown ape! You got that?"

"Fine." Naruto-clone obeyed grumpily. It wasn't going to let go of her anyway. It liked Rukia infinitely more than it liked Ichigo that much was for certain. The clone didn't want her getting herself hurt even if it was to assure that Yuzu and Karin's brother would be safe.

"Ichigo…" Rukia said softly, helplessly watching Ichigo make his trek over to Uryu and the other clone of Naruto looking up at the Menos Grande. Uryu looked up at it in frustration knowing he couldn't take it out, while clone-Naruto stared up at it as if it were a nuisance it should just get rid of, but doesn't because its leader hadn't moved to dispose of it himself.

"What? Can't you see I'm busy trying to save the whole town Kurosaki-san?" Uryu asked heatedly after Ichigo had tapped his shoulder, forcefully turning him around to look into Ichigo's apathetical eyes until rage came over his face. Uryu flinched right before a set of knuckles was nailed directly into his right eye, smashing his glasses, and knocking him to the ground.

"Ouch. And a hard right from Kurosaki-san takes down the Quincy!" Kisuke yelled as if he was commenting on a boxing match. Jinta bristled as he turned to glare at Naruto, still very much sore from the punch the blond had given him earlier. In more ways than one since the bruise Naruto conflicted on him hadn't been healed up.

Uryu groaned in pain, removing his shattered glasses, and turning to glare at the one responsible was hitting him down to the ground, only for the same set of knuckles to get acquainted with his nose, breaking it on its way up from it and putting him into unconsciousness.

"Be grateful I didn't leave ya with two beauty marks, jackass!" Ichigo quipped icily, "If Chado and that Naruto-boy hadn't saved my sister Karin from that hollow they faced…" Ichigo fumed, leaving it up to the imagination what he would've done if Karin had died, "You're lucky you're not dead!"

Ichigo looked at clone-Naruto, "Clean-up this pile of garbage in aisle seven." Quip aside: Ichigo marched past clone-Naruto with his arms held out like a hard-man while clone-Naruto poked Uryu with its foot curiously, putting one of its legs over Uryu's body, and staring down at the shiner and busted open nose on Uryu's face.

"Man! You just got knocked the fuck out!"

As Ichigo got within touching distance of Rukia's worse nightmare, he couldn't suppress the urge to dig out his ear with his index finger due to the loudness of the Menos Grande's roars, "You ever heard of an indoor voice?" Ichigo asked rhetorically, closing the remaining distance between him and the Menos Grande with a flying kick which impacted into its massive leg, pushing its shin inward and making it scream bloodcurdlingly, much to the amazements of Jinta, Ururu, and Rukia.

"He… actually damaged a Menos Grande." Rukia murmured and clone-Naruto just droned.

"Well now, it seems like this wasn't such a homicide mission I sent him on after all huh?" Kisuke joked, catching Naruto by surprise.

"Huh?" Naruto wondered. It almost sounded like Kisuke expected Ichigo to die. Nah! Preposterous! He wouldn't do that. Right? Sure the man's a little mysterious, and damn right creepy, but he wouldn't get someone else killed.

Right?

Somehow, looking at the sadistic glint in Kisuke's eyes made Naruto believe he would.

Naruto's attention was draw to the battle between Ichigo and the Menos Grande as the ground shook violently from a tremor after the Menos Grande had stomped its foot on Ichigo, much to Rukia's horror as she cried out desperately, "Ichigo! Let me go! This is madness! He can't do this alone!"

"Relax Rukia!" Clone-Naruto suggested, lifting Rukia up to get her to stop squirming around, "Can't you feel Ichigo's presence? He's fine." The clone's comforting words got Rukia to settle down as she squinted her eyes to get a good look at Ichigo.

"No way…" Ichigo was casually blocking the Menos Grande's leg by keeping his sword held above his head, "Just how strong can you be Ichigo?" Rukia asked herself, feeling her feet touch the ground as clone-Naruto dropped her to her feet.

Ichigo twisted his whole body around to resemble that of a hurricane insanely, creating immense shockwaves which tore the massive Menos Grande to pieces, releasing mass amounts of sickly black blood from its skin and making it growl out in pain. Ichigo then conjured-up the powerful blazing blue phoenix bird he'd used earlier right from underneath him to raise into the sky, easily purifying the Menos Grande like it was child's play.

"**Hellzone Tsuisutā no Tachiagari Fenikkusu (Rising Phoenix of Hellzone Twister)**…" The deathly shinigami announced darkly, while Chad, Jinta, Rukia, and Ururu gawked at his power, "I told y'all that I could destroy that hollow, easy!" The haughty boy collapsed onto his knee while breathing heavily, "This… is nothing. I'll… be up on my feet in a minute."

Ichigo struggled to his feet while clone-Naruto let go of Rukia. Ichigo tried to move, but his muscles felt really tense as if someone had been pulling on his arms and legs like he was a stretch arm doll, 'What's wrong with me? Why do I feel so exhausted?' Suddenly, Ichigo dropped onto his back, his sword hanging loosely in his grip.

'It must be fatigue catching up on me. I have used up a ton of energy today.' Ichigo concluded right before his zanpakuto lit-up in a bright orange colour, as if someone had lit it on fire, making concern appear on Rukia's and Chad's faces, "What's happening to me?"

"Ichigo!" Rukia shouted, running over to Ichigo, "You fool! You wasted all of your reiatsu in one burst with that last attack!"

"So what? I didn't know! I figured it was always at its maximum!" Ichigo screamed excruciatingly, while Kon and Chad ventured over to him with helpless expressions on their faces.

"How can Ichigo get back to normal Shadow-eyes?" Naruto asked.

"Well since Kurosaki-san released the majority of his reiatsu, his body's gone into overdrive mode causing extreme strain on his body. The only way to reverse the process is for Kurosaki-san get reiatsu from someone else. Otherwise he'll just die." Kisuke explained casually, making Naruto roll up his sleeves with a determined expression on his face.

"Then why didn't you say so?" Naruto grinned. "I'm the man to borrow him some energy. I've got tons of chakra stored up inside of me. Even ones my clones had after they dispelled. He can have some of mine." Naruto ran over to the pained Ichigo, dispelling his other clones to get his full chakra back so he could have enough to give to Ichigo, and still have some for himself.

"Here ya go, Ichigo! Have some chakra!" Naruto offered cheerfully, confusing Rukia and Ichigo before he bent down to touch Ichigo's shoulder.

"Chakra? What exactly is that Naruto-san? I thought you had reiatsu like the rest of us do," Rukia said.

"Nah. I got chakra. I'm a ninja after all. Not a shinigami." Naruto said, feeling noticeably more tired than he ever had during this time of the day while the strain on Ichigo's body ceased to exist and his zanpakuto returned to its normal colour, "How much chakra do ya need Ichigo? You damn near dried me out!"

"S-Shut up!" Ichigo coughed, sitting up, and holding his forehand with his right hand. "It's not enough! I need more. I still feel tired."

"Welcome to my world chump!" Naruto grinned, struggling to sustain the grin on his face due to the fatigue which had befallen him from giving Ichigo his energy so the boy would survive.

"I would kill you if I weren't too tired to do it." Ichigo said, looking at Rukia who was giving the two reiatsu/chakra powerhouses a gawking look, "Hey, Rukia! Get Kon outta my body, I need to go, and drop into bed!"

"Right." Rukia said, snapping out of her thoughts to put on her red soul removal glove that had a flaming skull on the centre of it, "Hold steady, you!"

"Roger, nee-chan!" Kon obeyed cheerfully right before his soul was sent out of Ichigo's body, his form dropping out of the back of Ichigo's head and onto Ichigo's soul hand.

"Whoa cool! So that little thing was inside of your body?" Naruto asked tiredly, while Ichigo's physical body fell onto the cold unforgiving floor.

"Yeah. His name's Kon and he's a mod soul. Whenever I need to release my soul form from my physical body, I can swallow that little green pill to do so." Ichigo explained while sending a glare at Rukia for not catching his body, to which the girl smirked at him in return.

Ichigo crawled into his body, spreading out his arms after putting Kon in his front pocket and staring up at the sky, "Argh. So this is what it feels like to be utterly worn out eh? Man I'm going hit the sack once I get home."

Chad took out his watch and checked the time, "I hate to break it to you, Ichigo, but we've got work in forty minutes."

Ichigo sighed, "Damn it. And I was so looking forward to resting my head on a pillow."

Naruto was worried about Chad's arm, "What are you gonna do about your arm Big-Chad?"

Chad looked at his arm, willing it back to normal with his mind, "There. Now it's not a problem."

"Well at least you have control over that thing?" Ichigo groused, forcing himself up via sheer willpower.

"Which is more than you can say, Ichigo," Rukia smirked teasingly, frustrating Ichigo.

"Whatever." Ichigo fisted Chad's knuckles, "Chado, buddy, I'll meet ya at work. I gotta run home and get changed quick time."

"Hmm. Same here." Chad said before turning around, "It's good to know what you are Ichigo. From now on I'll have your back even more so than before."

"Business as usual man, business as usual," Ichigo replied lackadaisically, watching Chad walk off home.

"And I'm gonna follow you home, dattebayo!" Naruto declared cheerfully, "Yuzu-chan's cooking tonight! I'll be damned if I miss her cooking!"

"What? Get away from me." Ichigo tiredly swatted his arm at Naruto, making him dodge just barely, "Who said you could come to my home! And stop calling my sister –chan!"

Naruto flipped Ichigo the bird sign, "Screw you man. Yuzu-chan's my bested friend in this whole world! Besides, Karin already found my other clone that I left with Yuzu-chan and made my two clones tell 'em about my abilities, and why I had to leave a clone with Yuzu-chan to keep her safe from any hollows that might've wanted to snack on her when they took my clones to your house. So they know about today's events, and I know where you live." The forgetful boy lied at the end of his sentence with a grin on his face.

He just hoped Ichigo wouldn't call him on his bluff.

"How do you know all of that?" Ichigo asked.

Sucker!

Naruto grinned sheepishly, "My clone and your pops were having a wrestling match, which made Karin mad enough to kick both of their asses. Well it only took one hit from Karin to take out my clone. Not sure how many kicks old man Isshin took though." An audible smack of the hand echoed through the air, indicating Ichigo had face-palmed himself.

'That should not have ceased to amaze me. Two idiots in the same room, what else could I expect to happen other than both of them acting like children? I'm surprised my old man never introduced me to Naruto yesterday. It probably would've gone along the lines of, 'Hey, Ichigo-boy, this is Naruto-boy – he's the son I always wanted. Geez. Give me a break.' Ichigo mused lackadaisically, mimicking his father's voice in his head.

"Hey, man. You okay?"

"Yeah. I was just… dumb enough to be surprised."

"Haha! You're funny, you should definitely be a stand-up comedian."

"Shut the hell up, Shrimp!"

"Make me Circus-freak!"

"Why you?!"

That was it. Ichigo truly hated Naruto, and wanted nothing more but to take the little rude boy up to the mountains were no one could hear them for a million miles, and beat the stuffing out of him. You know, that didn't sound like a bad idea. If he didn't have work today. See, he wasn't just making up excuses for not kicking Naruto's butt today, he just truly didn't have the time. Never mind the fact that both of the rude-boys' energy-levels felt depleted to them in despite of the fact that they were running at half capacity. Because the two golden boys had so much reiatsu/chakra they didn't realize they were wasting any until more than a quarter of their energy-levels was gone.

So right now they felt tired while they quarrelled like two brothers wanting to kill each other.

But tomorrow, they would be fresh and ready for Ichigo to try his luck in beating-up Naruto to get him out of his, and most importantly, his sisters' lives.

"Look at them, one moment they're fighting against a group of hollows and the next they're arguing as if nothing had happened." Rukia whispered to herself, "Those two both have an incredible amount of reiatsu or whatever Naruto-san's got. It almost makes me believe that I would be sa-." Rukia shook her head at her own thoughts. That was selfish to put the powerhouses of reiatsu/chakra at risk just to secure her own safety.

Rukia looked up at the sky, resigning herself to her own fate.

"My time is almost at an end here…"

Dark clouds were hanging over Rukia's head.

* * *

**Jinta and Uryu are going to get their shits together and step their games up. They going to have to, and they will. **

**Bye. Stay tune because Ichigo fed up with Naruto now. **


	6. Eye of the Eagle

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Naruto. Yes Orihime didn't get her powers in this story. There's no repercussions to it. it feels iffy bringing someone back from the dead after they got their bodies burned to ashes just like that. She didn't work for it either, not to mention I feel Orihime's personality was rehashed from a chirpy, bubbly girl I loved pre Soul Society arc to play a whiny, emo one during the Arrancar and Hueco Mundo sagas. So in my stupid opinion her powers have done more bad than good to an otherwise wonderful series. **

* * *

The atmosphere was magical while pink petals flowed elegantly through the air, wonderfully enhancing the elegance of the cherry blossoms showering over the hill which had rows of seats lined up with people of a female and a male gender each preoccupying them while wearing outstanding yukatas/kimono-suits. A red rug was rolled out from the posh limousine to the well-crafted alter.

In the centre of the wedding alter itself was four people. One of them was the prime minister who oddly enough felt a cringe of jealously hit his heart looking at the lucky, handsome blond haired man wearing a black suit and standing in between two gorgeous women both clad in stunning white dresses.

"I knew this day would come soon. I couldn't think of any other guy to give my beautiful daughters away to other than my surrogate son! Now he's gonna be my son-in-law, I wouldn't have it any other way!" Isshin wailed exaggeratingly, happiness evident in his voice while the teddy bear form of Kon sat on his shoulder, also dressed in a blue kimono suit.

"I can't believe he gets to marry two hot women! He's living every man's dream!" Kon envied the lucky soon-to-be-husband. "Just thinking of the celestial two pairs of boobs he'll get to feel is enough to make me cry!"

"Awww. Little Naruto's all grown up now. I'm glad he was able to invite his nee-chan here. It gave me a reason to wear my dress," Rukia said brightly, referring to herself in the first person while wearing a purple dress with a picture of chappy the rabbit stitched into the corner of it.

Alongside her was Orihime looking anxious with her hands already threatening to throw themselves in the air, "They got a bouquet each! I can't miss! I'm gonna be all like a volleyball player, and catch one of them! Yep, indeed I will!" Then she could marry her knight in shining armour, Ichigo.

"And I'm gonna give you away on that special day, Orihime!" Isshin yelled exuberantly, tears of happiness pouring down his eyes while Rukia nodded her head with a deadpan look written all over her features.

"I don't think the father of the groom can give away his bride Isshin." Rukia deadpanned but Isshin still had an optimistic smile on his face before the prime minister was about declare the trio husband and wives, "Oh I think they're starting now!"

"Do you, Naruto Uzumaki, take these women to be your awfully wedded wives?" The prime minister asked the sunglasses, men-in-black-esque suit clad man who merely grinned happily, coolly taking off his sunglasses to cast looks of lust at his women which got dreamily sighs from them.

"Oh hell yeah I do, dattebayo!" A typical Naruto's response which got a roll of the eyes from his black haired soon-to-be wife before she tightened her grip on his arm, having already accepted her shared husband's many flaws wholeheartedly, because she loved him that much just like her sister did.

"Lucky son of a bitch," The prime minister muttered under his breath, making Naruto look at him curiously, but the prime minister waved his hand dismissively, "And do you two, Karin and Yuzu Kurosaki, take this man to be your awfully wedded husband?" The prime minster turned away from the trio, "...And promise not to kill each other in the process."

Yuzu and Karin turned toward each other, nodding their heads with smiles on their faces. They turned toward the prime minster with beaming smiles on their faces, "We do!"

The prime minster smiled in an attempt to hide his ever growing jealousness, but Naruto Uzumaki was not to be fooled, "Then I now announce you three Mrs, Mr, and Mrs Uzumaki. You may now kiss the brides." Naruto formed the criss-cross hand-sign, making a clone of himself appear with a cloud of smoke. This greatly made the prime minster flinch, "Sweet jumping Jesus!"

Naruto and his clone ensnared one of their arms around Yuzu and Karin's waists, using the other ones to show the beautiful girls' faces before bringing them both in to capture their lips in passionate kisses, sending shivers of lust up their spines. The whole crowd erupted in roars of cheers, standing up to clap as fiercely as they could whilst the kissing was going on.

"THAT'S MY SON-IN-LAW!" Isshin shouted.

It was a happy occasion, one to be cherished and told to kids in the distant future of how a man married his two childhood sweethearts.

There was only one person who wasn't joining in on the celebration of this beautiful wedding. The man appeared to be outside of the radius of the wedding area, occasionally making luminous blue lights flicker as he wildly, doggedly, and belligerently banged on the very air itself to save his two sisters from that blond-maniac they were marrying.

"NO! STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTERS! I WON'T LET YOU MARRY THEM!" Ichigo roared, struggling to bust his way through the powerful magnetic force field.

The only part of Naruto which turned around to face Ichigo was his head, Chucky-esque style. The cat-faced boy robotically twisted his head around to give Ichigo a disturbed look, "Hey, Ichigo-niichan. We're gonna be brothers. That's great! Dattebayo!" Ichigo growled at the disarranged Naruto, knowing more than ever that he himself had to be the one to stop this wedding from happening.

"No. You're not my brother." Ichigo stated resolutely, shaking the world via his tremendous surge of power, a blue aura shrouding his body, dissipating to reveal Ichigo in shinigami form. He unsheathed his massive sword, waiting until it unfurled itself, "It's now or never, bastard!" Ichigo slashed at the force-field, causing sparks of electricity to cover his body excruciatingly, "Ahhhhhhhh!"

Naruto laughed at Ichigo's misfortune while a vortex of purple appeared to slowly take him and his ladies away to some far off dimension, "Better luck next time Ichigo-niichan. See ya at Christmas!"

"Noooooooooooo!" Ichigo roared, wanting more power to stop this from happening. "I've got to stop this! I've got to stop this! I can stop this! I'm Ichigo! I'm a shinigami, an elite warrior of a higher plateau! I won't be defeated by the likes of a low level warrior such as him!" Ichigo ranted, feeling a strong dose of malevolence well up inside of his head.

He froze. Where was this amount of bloodlust coming from? It was enough to make him stop and think for just a minute. What was he? Did he really want to cause harm to others as the overbearing amount of malevolence inside of him would suggest?

At this moment a raspy, psychopath voice spoke up inside of his head, "**Why do you hesitate for? You wanted to kill that boy, eh! Then quit pussy footing and kill 'em already! Rip out their souls from their bodies and devour 'em! Hahahahahahaha!"**

"No! Quit putting words into my head you meddling bitch! That's not what I want! A true warrior doesn't resort to such cheap tactics!" Ichigo argued and the devilish being inside of his head chortled monstrously, making Ichigo's body stiffen up, and putting the shinigami-hybrid in panic as he felt his fingers move on their own accord, "Wha-?"

"**Move over bitch or better yet bend down on all fours, 'cause the real King's hopping on your back to show ya how it's done! I'm rolling up to the boy, then your family-members to gobble 'em all up, hahahahahahahahahahaha!" **Ichigo's eyes widened. What was he transforming into, a devil? He desperately fought to shake off the creature's influence on him, but it proved to be for naught because a milky white substance spewed forth from Ichigo's very own face, half of it beginning to harden over half of Ichigo's face.

"What's going on?!" Ichigo wondered belligerently, his left eye going blank as the sclera shifted from clear white to the darkness of black. The pupil shifted from brown to yellow once half of the white mask was moulded on Ichigo's face to give him jagged teeth on one side and normal ones on the other.

"**Mutiny, that's what." **The creature grinned, feeling well in control of this powerful body. It waited too long for this moment and it wasn't going to blow it now. Ichigo could do nothing as the mask concealed his face entirely, three dashing red lines on the left side of the mask, "**Oh yeah. Now it's time to rock 'em all."**

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

XxX

**Chapter 6**

**Eye of the Eagle**

Ichigo sweated. His body shot up almost instinctually. His breathing was heavy, while his hand felt what exactly he was on. The softness of the object he was laying on reminded him how he instantly jumped into bed the moment he got home from work due to the feeling of having normal sized reserves for once and the fatigue he got from his shift caught up on him.

Ichigo came out of bed still clad in his work uniform which consisted of a black dress shirt, black trousers, and posh black shoes on his feet. He shoved his hand into his pocket to pull out a wad of bills. He walked over to the front of his desk where a poster of a Kung Fu master was stuck to the wall.

His hand reached for the poster and lifted it up, a gaping hole clearly evident in the wall. It was something he had done himself after a heated argument with his father regarding Isshin's rude morning calls. Nowadays he used it as a makeshift safe since he didn't trust the banks.

After slashing his money away, Ichigo sauntered into the bathroom his room had by the front door. He switched on the light to see the toilet and the sink. After advancing toward the sink, Ichigo turned the tap on, drenching his hands with water before cupping his hands underneath the water.

He splashed the water in his face and gave his own reflection a hard look after looking into the mirror above the sink, drips of water falling off of his face, "Another one of those."

What'd it mean? Why was he experiencing these kinds of nightmares? What was that insane, hollow-like voice trying to tell him? That he and Ichigo were one in the same? All of these nightmares he had all involved the devilish gravel voice speaking inside of his head as if he had Ichigo's number to consistently invade his body like it was child's play.

Ichigo rotated the tap in an anti-clockwise manner, the cold water instantly shutting off, "Hrugh. Just what the hell's happening to me?" At first Ichigo had been tempted to blame Rukia for the reason why he was having those occurring unpleasant dreams, but quickly scratched that off of the list once he realized Rukia didn't nearly have the amount of strength, power, and malevolence he had.

One would be able to feel someone else's bloodlust even if one's sensing ability was shoddy, like Ichigo's was. Rukia didn't have any malevolence when Ichigo first met her and she sure as hell didn't have it now. She was just bossy.

That left Grand Fisher. Ever since he had defeated the bastard hollow, the nightmares he saw every time he went to sleep just kept on repeating themselves only with different people and in different places. The only problem with this reasoning was that Grand Fisher never inflicted any kind of significant damage on Ichigo which would cause such a side effect to the shinigami-warrior.

"Hrugh. I'll have to pay a visit to Mr Hat-and-Clogs to see if he can shed some light on these dreams I'm having." Ichigo concluded, walking out of the bathroom after switching off the light. "I gotta find out why all of this is happening to me."

As he came back to his bed the orange haired shinigami realized something or someone was amiss, "Tch. Where is Kon?" He looked into the cupboard where Rukia slept, thinking that Kon had successfully snuck in there to rest on Rukia's flat-chest.

He blinked his eyes when he saw a folded up blanket and no Rukia, "Argh. Now where is that damned midget? Why wouldn't she be in here? She can't be anywhere else. My sisters and old man don't even know she's staying here." He lifted an eyebrow once the noise of someone whispering loudly in excitement was heard by him.

"That can't be…" Ichigo trailed off, walking over to his front door and swinging it open. The darkness of the hallway allowed him to see the luminous light coming from downstairs effortlessly. The quietude of upstairs enabled him to hear the obnoxious voice as plain as day coming from downstairs, causing him to fume slightly.

"Alright, I know I didn't just hear what I think I heard." But just in case he snuck downstairs to see for himself. Ichigo inwardly cursed his luck seeing the bane of his existence sitting on the family-couch next to Rukia of all the people who was wearing Yuzu's pyjamas. They were watching a movie known as the Matrix while a similar notebook sat on the coffee table in front of them.

"Oh. Now I get it. Shadow-eyes was referencing the Matrix when he asked Big-Chad and I which road we wanted to take, the red one or the blue one. Haha." Naruto chortled and Rukia blinked her eyes, "That dude kills it."

Ichigo slammed his hand against his face in exasperation, "As if my luck couldn't get any more rotten."

"Keep your voice down! We don't want to wake up the others!" Rukia commanded in a hushed tone of voice while the blond-boy beside her grinned reassuringly, waving his hand.

"I wouldn't worry about that. Ichigo's already awake by the looks of it." Naruto said and Rukia's eyes widened before turning to see Ichigo standing by the stairs, looking grouchy as always. Unlike Naruto, Rukia couldn't even feel out Ichigo's presence. Naruto's sensing ability was more proficient than Rukia's, and that wasn't a compliment since Naruto's sensing ability wasn't exactly top notch. It was just good enough to feel out a person's general location if they were close enough to him.

"What's wrong Ichigo; did you have a bad dream?" Rukia asked tauntingly, a smirk coming to her face.

"Never you mind that." Ichigo whispered ragingly, confusing Rukia since she never expected Ichigo to have a bad dream, she just wanted to get underneath his skin and annoy him like she always did, "You." Ichigo pointed sharply at Naruto, "What the hell are you doing in my house?"

"You should know, you were here when we walked through the door, and you almost got your lights blackened out by old man Isshin. Or did me giving you my chakra so you could live short-circuit your brain?" The smart-mouthed boy grinned in a cheeky manner at Ichigo, making Ichigo grind his temples as he could feel a raging headache coming on.

"Tch. Don't be a smartass," Ichigo rudely sucked his teeth while Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "And ya 'know why you shouldn't be here. Just look outta the damn window, jackass."

Naruto looked at the window, "Yep, it's night time."

"Then answer me one question. Just one itsy bitsy question." Ichigo emphasized by holding up his right hand and forming a c shape with his index finger and thumb, keeping the tip of his finger and thumb as close as possible without actually making them touch, "Why are you here? Don't you have a house to get back to?"

"Ah! That's two quest-." A glare from Ichigo instantly made that snide remark die in Naruto's throat, "Hmmm. Fine. Old man Isshin said I could stay the night after dinner." Naruto finally admitted, "He also bought me some new clothes to wear tomorrow, what a guy!"

"Okay, it's a start." Ichigo partly accepted, "And you just had to bring Rukia downstairs for what reason now? Eh. Didn't I tell ya earlier that my sisters don't know that I'm a shinigami? That might've been your clone to be fair, but you get the memories of your clones, so I did tell ya! So, what the hell would Karin and Yuzu think if they saw Rukia here eh?"

Rukia pouted in remembrance to earlier where Naruto's clone brought her out of the closet and downstairs in its arms as if she were a baby. She was grateful to Naruto for saving her from those hollows, but she could walk on her own. That was what her two legs were for, damn it!

Still she couldn't be too mad with him since he gave her the best compliment a girl (Rukia) could've asked for.

"Rukia couldn't sleep so she came downstairs to watch films with me. Oh. Did ya know Rukia has some great drawings of bunny rabbits? Because she does!" Naruto grinned, picking up Rukia's notepad while said girl smiled brightly at him. Ichigo stared at the boy owlishly, not fully being able to believe that someone in the right frame of mind could like Rukia's drawings.

Naruto showed Ichigo pictures of a few hollows Rukia had drawn to explain different classes of hollows to him, looking like rabbits, "This biggie hollow right here is a gillian hollow, also known as a Menos Grande. That's what you defeated earlier. Look how ugly it is, with its big nose. It looks kinda like Pinocchio. Well Rukia made it cute. She can make anything look cute with her drawings skills, even you Ichigo!"

Ichigo scowled while Rukia cooed at Naruto, hugging the boy and ruffling his blond spiky hair, "Aw, thank you Naruto. You hear that Ichigo, at least someone around here appreciates good art work." Rukia finished smugly, kissing Naruto on his spiky blond hair.

"Whatever." Ichigo groused grumpily, 'Both of them are a couple of retards.' Ichigo added, "Why don't you stop with the nonsense and get on with it."

"Man you're so angry, Ichigo." Ichigo glared at Naruto, "Alright already, I'm hurrying." Naruto pointed to the next hollow in line. "This one right here is a step up from the Menos Grande hollow. It's known as an Adjuchas hollow. Rukia says it's on the average B-class level and takes many different forms, such as animals."

As Naruto went to point at another bunny rabbit, he remembered that Rukia didn't want to draw it because she feared its power and because no one had ever seen it.

Instead she only left its name and a brief description of the hollow on the notepad.

"And this is a hollow that Rukia didn't want to draw. It's known as a Vasto Lorde. It's never been sighted but rumours has it up in the heaven-place is that it's an A-class beast of supreme power in the world of the hollows known as Hueco Mundo." Naruto reported while Rukia shivered.

"And that's what I learned tonight. Oh there's these earthbound spirits known as Jibakurei, a human just about to become a hollow. Rukia told me you faced one during the night when we first met…" Naruto finished on a sour note, remembering the punch Ichigo had given him that night.

"And you couldn't have waited to hear that from her in the morning why?" Ichigo asked, causing both Rukia and Naruto to shrug as if to say it didn't matter, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It wouldn't have made a difference whether I told Naruto this in the morning or tonight." Rukia told Ichigo calmly, making him gnash his teeth angrily before freezing as a voice reached his ears.

"Oh onii-chan, you're awake now. You're up early," Ichigo spun another to see Yuzu and Karin tiredly rubbing their eyes, the former holding a dressed-up Kon in her arms.

"Y-Yuzu, Karin," Ichigo dreaded having to explain what a random black haired girl was doing in their home. Lots of things could happen in this scenario, inappropriate things that certainly wouldn't involve a TV. It would most likely involve protection and Ichigo and Naruto deciding who got to go first.

Figuratively speaking of course.

"Wah! Ichigo! Your sister dressed me up in a pink dress! I ain't no Barbie doll!" Ichigo paled at Kon's wail while Yuzu cooed and hugged Kon to her face, making the mod soul squirm desperately to get out of her grip. She was young too grope.

Kon wasn't a molester! He was a pervert and a damn good one at that!

"Argh! You foolish thing! No-."

"Don't worry, Ichi-nii, we already know about Kon." Karin reassured her brother indifferently, causing him to give her a dumb look.

"You mean to say you two know he's-."

"Yeah, a mod soul, what part of we know didn't you understand Ichi-nii?"

"And you know tw-."

"That you're a shinigami? Yes. Or did you think Yuzu and I just went along for the ride because we were both high?" Karin asked sarcastically, a dry look on her pretty face.

Ichigo growled intensely, turning around to glare at Naruto, "I told ya not to tell them you meddling boy!"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "They were gonna have to find out eventually, I just let it slip when I told 'em I gave ya my chakra so you could live." A warm fuzzy feeling welled up inside of Naruto's gut when he remembered Yuzu hugging him in appreciation for saving her precious big brother, twin sister, and Ichigo's friends.

"What's wrong with us knowing your secret onii-chan?" Yuzu asked with a saddened look on her face.

"Oh no, nothing's wrong with it Yuzu, honest." Ichigo rushed to assure his baby sister as he fretted over her, "I just didn't want you to get targeted by any hollows is all. I thought by not telling you two what I was it would've kept you two protected."

"Well that did a load of good." Karin said sarcastically, "Those hollows still ended up coming after us multiple of times anyway. Luckily Naruto was able to save your friend and myself from one earlier otherwise the chances of me being here right now are slim at best and zero at worst."

"Haha! You girls know I would never let anything bad happen to ya!" Naruto chortled, blurring from sight to majestically appear in front of Karin and Yuzu, causing Yuzu to gasp at the boy's sheer speed before he wrapped his arms around her and her twin sister.

"Well at least you being a ninja explains your ridiculous speed Naruto." Karin said dryly, whilst Yuzu patted Naruto on his shoulder and managed to squeeze out Kon who was being choked in between them. The mod soul let out a gasp while he glared at the blond rude-boy, "How long did you even train for to get that fast in America, Naruto?"

Naruto chuckled tentatively. He doubted they would've understood the meaning of him coming from another dimension holding the strongest Biju inside of him. No matter how happy the boy was, he always had that fear in his mind if Karin and Yuzu ever found out he was the Jinchuuriki of the most powerful creature in this world and his, they would resent him like his people did back in Konoha.

He didn't want that. Yuzu and Karin were his two dearest friends. They were his only friends in this world. Point. Blank. Period. He wouldn't risk losing them for anything in the world. Not even a lifetime supply worth of ramen could tempt him to give up his lady-friends.

"For a real long time Karin," Naruto explained while he let go of Yuzu and Karin to Ichigo's satisfaction.

"Well I think Naru-kun being a ninja and onii-chan being a shinigami is pretty awesome." Yuzu said enthusiastically, making Naruto smile while he folded his arms behind his head.

"I wonder who's stronger between you two? Naruto has the ninja-stealthy skills while Ichigo has the scary shinigami powers." Kon mused idly, catching the boys' attentions before a smirk came to Naruto's face while Ichigo let out a chuckle.

"Heh. Don't ask such rhetorical questions Kon. It's obvious I'm stronger than that clown." Ichigo said and Naruto seethed angrily at him.

"Overconfidence can be a hindrance Ichigo. Shinigami are taught to control their emotions as it's believed emotions cloud their judgements." Rukia elucidated and Naruto frowned. The ways of a shinigami sounded eerily similar to the ways of a shinobi. Both sets of warriors lived by a code which entitled becoming a robot because it was believed one could operate at a hundred per-cent efficiency.

"Woman does it look like I came outta the factory, eh?" The smart-mouthed orange haired boy asked her rhetorically, getting her to roll her eyes, "I ain't a hunk of junk thrown together hastily to build a half-assed robot. I'm a warrior of an elite race known as Death Gods. In case you didn't know that's the definition for untouchable."

"Pretty sure it means a deity of the underworld Ichi-nii." Karin deadpanned.

"And I'm sure my clone booted ya in the face yesterday. You weren't so untouchable then eh?" Naruto smirked and Ichigo frowned.

"Hmph. That one was on the house." Ichigo regained the smirk on his face. "But next time you won't get so lucky."

"Is that so?" Naruto asked while his eyes narrowed. Yuzu and Kon gulped as they could feel the tension rise between the two, "I'll have ya know I've been known to have been blessed with lady luck. So I would watch what I say if I were you dude."

"You wanna bet on that?"

Oh it was on. With a snarl Naruto clenched his fists and locked eyes with Ichigo, the gazes of each boy hardened immensely, "You bet your ass I do!" Naruto shouted excitedly, eager anticipation building up inside of him for his fight with Ichigo. Rukia could see how each boy was practically begging to fight one another, and tiptoed off upstairs to get something whilst Karin watched her go.

"Wait a minute you two, you're not going to fight right now are you?" Yuzu asked worriedly.

"I don't see why not. School doesn't start for another six hours. We've got nothing but time." Ichigo smirked coolly, cracking his knuckles which got Naruto to make an 'O' with his mouth. Ichigo wasn't messing around. He wanted this.

"But daddy's still asleep, what if he wakes up and finds both of you gone." Yuzu protested.

"Yeah! Besides you two are so strong you would probably end up killing each other." Kon argued in agreement with Yuzu.

"Heh. That's unlikely, because this clown won't even have enough strength to put a bruise on my skin." Ichigo stated arrogantly, his haughtiness easily being matched by Naruto's own arrogance.

"Yeah like how you won't be able to land a blow on me you bitch!" Naruto resorted doggedly, refusing to be intimidated by Ichigo and the boy's tremendous power.

"Bu-." Yuzu tried to say, only to be cut off.

"Just let the two hard-headed idiots have at it Yuzu." Karin said calmly, getting a glare from Ichigo and an indignant cry of 'hey' from Naruto.

"But Karin-chan what if they wound up hurting each other?" Yuzu asked.

"Then they'll just have to make sure they won't." Karin reasoned as if she and her sister shouldn't be arguing about this. Yuzu looked like she wanted to argue back with her sister, but Karin quickly added on, "Look sis, you're not gonna stop them. Ichi-nii's stubborn enough as it is without taking Naruto into consideration. You may as well let them get whatever's in their systems out before they erupt and fight each other in the middle of the street."

Yuzu still looked unsure before looking at her brother and her dear friend. She was left shocked by the utter eagerness the two had in their eyes while their fingers twitched impatiently, as if they were itching to clench them into fists and bang each other's faces in. Both were powerful in their own rights, and they knew that deep down. And because of that their warrior-spirits were reinvigorating them.

"…Okay, but Karin and I are coming with you two to make sure you don't injure each other. K?" Yuzu resigned herself to overseeing Naruto and Ichigo's fight of destiny with a sigh coming from her lips while the boys and Karin smirked.

"That's fine by me. I think Naruto's gonna need the support after I'm done with him." Ichigo said.

"Dream on pal. You'll be broken after this fight's finished." Naruto resorted.

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that."

"Yeah we will. Dattebayo!"

Rukia chose this moment to come back from upstairs and leap herself toward Ichigo with her red soul removal glove on her right hand. Ichigo narrowed his eyes, effortlessly catching Rukia's hand before she could slam the glove into his forehead, causing her to gasp while the boy whom had her wrist sent a glare at her, "Woman! A warning would be obliged before you do that!" Ichigo growled, pushing Rukia's hand into his forehead and releasing his soul form from his physical body.

"So that's how you're able to be a shinigami eh Ichi-nii." Karin said with an impressed smirk on her face while Ichigo's body fell forward and onto the floor.

"Where's onii-chan? I can't see him." Yuzu clarified.

"Oh yeah, that's right. You can't see spirits." Karin realized disappointedly, "Bummer."

"No sweat. I got this." Naruto grinned while holding out his hand to Yuzu, "Hold my hand Yuzu-chan and I promise you'll be able to see Ichigo in his shinigami-form." This made the girl's eyes light up, a bright smile form across her face before she quickly grabbed Naruto's hand, much to Ichigo's worry.

"Hey, what the heck are ya gonna do? You better not be putting her in danger ya' know." Ichigo warned.

"Nah. I'm just gonna give her some chakra, just enough so she can see spirits like Karin and I can." Naruto assured. Yuzu began to feel warm as a wonderful sensation filled her body, making her shut her eyes to marvel in the feeling of Naruto's power surging through her veins.

"You sure that's safe?" Ichigo asked with concern in his voice. "I wouldn't want more hollows looking for her ya' know?"

"Well hollows target her and me anyway, Ichi-nii. I don't think this would change much to tell you the truth other than the fact that she'll be able to see them so she won't just stand around like a sitting duck if one's in front of her." Karin reasoned and Ichigo gave her a hum of agreement.

Once Yuzu opened her eyes up, the blurry figure of her brother became as clear as day to her. A look of amazement came over her pretty face, "Whoa, onii-chan! You look absolutely fantastic!"

"So it actually worked." Ichigo grumbled before looking at Naruto deadly serious, "If she gets eaten by a hollow because of this, so help me god I wi-."

"Yeah, yeah, kill me, blah, blah, bury my body in the backyard, blah, blah, blah! Can you just shut up so we can get on with the fight already?" Naruto asked, cutting off Ichigo while making the chit-chat motion with his hand. Ichigo scowled and ushered his sisters away, to which Karin put her hand on her sister's arm and eased her away from the two.

"Don't fight in here you two!" Yuzu said while her brother unsheathed his massive broadsword off of his back and held it to Naruto's neck while it unfurled itself, the little blond boy placing his hand on Ichigo's blade. He tried to push it away, but Ichigo's strength kept it in place almost effortlessly, causing a smirk to come to Ichigo's face to see his strength above Naruto's.

"Just showing the kid how his strength doesn't compare to mine is all." Ichigo explained in a cocky manner to his little sister, blinking his eyes once Naruto faded away as if he wasn't even there to begin with.

"And your speed is basically the same as a turtle's in comparison to mine, dattebayo!" Naruto shot back from behind Ichigo. His hand bled a little due to the strain of trying to push Ichigo's Zanpakuto away from himself, but his regeneration powers quickly took care of something so minor.

"And it's all tied up between Naruto and Ichigo! Ichigo appears to have the strength advantage but Naruto can just blitz him! Who's gonna win! I got my money on speedy!" Kon declared and Ichigo glared at him which got him to laugh tentatively, "What? He's faster! How can you hit something which is much quicker than you, Ichigo?"

Yuzu let out a sigh, "Karin-chan and I just need to get changed first, and then we can go find a place for you two to have a friendly sparring match." The boys nodded while keeping their battle-hardened gazes locked on each other, "Do you need another dress to wear, Rukia-chan?"

"Yes if you don't mind Yuzu." Rukia accepted the offer from Yuzu appreciatively, happy that the girl knew of her existence here. It took her longer than her sister to come around to the idea of shinigamis and hollows stalking the world, but after what Karin witnessed yesterday, the devil itself probably wouldn't surprise her if it made a surprise appearance.

The girls left the boys momentarily to get changed.

"I know the perfect place where we can fight Ichigo." Naruto said with a Yusuke-esque grin on his face.

"Oh really now? I hope for your sake this mystery place of yours is big so you can run away from me but find it futile to hide. Because as they say, you can run but you can't hide from the lean-mean fighting machine." Ichigo referenced with a Vegeta-esque smirk on his face.

"Ooooo. I'm shaking in my boots. Don't worry; the place I've picked is as big as they come. Right on the edge of town so no one will be able to hear you for a million miles." Naruto taunted.

"So you've chosen the mountain-side huh? Hehe. You know it's funny, I was just thinking to myself earlier how a nice stroll in the mountain-side could do us the world of good." Ichigo chuckled deeply, "I'm glad we're in a mutual agreement where our fight should take place."

"Yeah." Naruto responded.

"Ooooo! The tension between you guys is killing me! This fight between you two will be the best thing since man first felt the delightfulness of boobs and slice bread!" Kon yelled. Naruto and Ichigo simply nodded their heads, their eyes refusing to leave one another.

It took a few more minutes, but eventually the girls came downstairs all fully dressed. Yuzu wore a pink hooded dress with a white strip running the middle of it while Rukia wore one of her dresses which was coloured dark blue and came down to Rukia's knees. Yuzu wore a pair of sandals and Rukia wore a pair of high-heels Ichigo had bought for her.

Karin wore a red t shirt with a pair of black shorts reaching her knees, a cap on her head, and sandals on her feet.

"Ready when you are guys." Karin said lazily.

"Cool." Naruto grinned.

Yuzu held up a timer she had brought down stairs with her, "I'm going to set this timer to run down from ten minutes. Once the time limit's up, both of you have to surrender regardless of the outcome. That way it'll avoid the fight going on forever. K?"

"No complains on my end. Ten minutes is all I'll need to land a blow on Goldie-locks here." Ichigo assured with a savage smirk on his face.

"Or maybe I'll find a way to put you down for the count in ten minutes, chump!" Naruto resorted.

"Heh." Ichigo said amusingly, "Let's go then."

"RIGHT!"

XxX

As Naruto took off carrying the twins and Kon, Ichigo following them with Rukia on his back, the youngsters failed to notice the presence of one Isshin Kurosaki who merely dropped from upstairs after sticking to the wall like spider man. Walking over to the sofa, Isshin pulled out a box of cigarettes and a lighter, pulling one out of the box and lighting it before taking a deep drag of the now lit cigarette.

"My boy Ichigo and Naruto-boy still need more training. They couldn't even tell I was standing on the ceiling the whole time." Isshin said coolly, smoking more of his cigarette. "It's almost time. If the girls know about the supernatural side of the world then I see no reason to keep the whole truth from them. Besides, think of all the intense training I could give my boy Ichigo!" Isshin contemplated energetically, "Climbing mountains, running around Karakura Town weighed down with a boulder wrapped around his body, pulling an airplane to its destination... I can make him do it all!" Isshin yelled goofily, a Goku-esque smile on his face.

He smoked more of his cigarette to return to his cool relaxed demeanour.

"Yeah, I'll make him and Naruto-boy really strong."

XxX

(Later That Same Night – mountain-side)

"Okay, I'm gonna kill him when I get up there. I don't care anymore." Ichigo growled, carrying Rukia on his back as he climbed the mountain. He was nearly at the top, it took him a while as the sun had started to penetrate the sky, but he was there.

"You did say let's go. Naruto just took it upon himself to carry your sisters there." Rukia defended.

"That's the point. I never gave him permission to do that!" Ichigo stressed and Rukia rolled her eyes at him.

"Quit your complaining and hop to it! Another Naruto already beat you up here by the looks of it." Rukia said harshly, having remembered the orange blur shooting past her and Ichigo at an insane speed.

"One of these days, Rukia, one of these days you'll get yours," Ichigo promised darkly, getting Rukia to stick her tongue out at him as they made to the top to see Naruto sitting in between Karin and Yuzu with Kon on the latter's lap, "You."

"Hey, man. What took you so long?" Naruto asked in good spirits.

"Shut up. I haven't got inhuman speed like some people ya know, but someday I will. I'll be fast enough to create multiple illusions of myself, just you watch." Ichigo promised. Big white letters appeared underneath Ichigo, spelling out the words…

…**EPIC FORESHADOWING.**

"Oh okay, I can't wait to see that day come," Naruto chortled, standing up and dusting himself off before stretching for the battle to come.

"Try to not kill each other you two. School starts in a few hours. I'd hate to explain to Tukiyo-sensei how my dear brother killed my classmate." Karin explained dryly.

"I concede it would be awkward to explain to the teachers of Karakura High School how a little boy took out Ichigo," Rukia offered an alternative to Karin's explanation.

"We'll be careful. Right Ichigo?" Naruto questioned.

"Do you really want me to answer that question?" Ichigo lazily answered Naruto's question with one of his own which got a chuckle from Naruto, "Okay. Let's get this over with. I'd like to catch a few ZZZs before school starts."

"I'm with ya there dude." Naruto agreed while taking out a kunai knife from his pocket and spinning it on his finger, getting Ichigo to lift his eyebrow up at the object.

"Where'd you get that from?" Ichigo asked, unsheathing his sword from his back and walking over to Naruto so the two could distance themselves away from the girls.

"I sent a clone home while I brought Yuzu-chan and Karin here." Naruto elucidated.

"We tried to stop him but Naru-kun insisted that he needed his weapon to fight." Yuzu said with a pout on her face.

"Alright." Ichigo accepted. "In the end it's going to be useless to him anyway." Naruto grinned challengingly at Ichigo's audaciousness.

"Naruto's clones really do come in handy," Rukia said idly, sitting on her knees next to Karin.

"Yeah. The knucklehead could use them to skip out on school and advance himself on his training." Karin commented and Naruto looked at her in curiosity.

"I can really do that?" Naruto asked. Just think how powerful he could become by having clones do the tedious work like improving his chakra control while he did the fun stuff, aka the physical work like climbing a mountain or something.

"You idiot! You mean to tell me all this time you've been using clones you never once stopped to think of the ways you could use them to your advantage?!" Karin yelled. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while Yuzu sighed.

'Geez. This kid's such a dumbass. If I had his technique I would be using them for all sorts of things I couldn't possibly have done on my own.' Ichigo mused to himself, setting himself in a stance and facing off against Naruto.

"Sorry, Karin, it's just that I use my clones so much I didn't realize what they experience I obtain once they dispel. Haha!" Naruto laughed in a carefree manner, "I guess it's also 'cause I never before sent my clones off to run errands like I did on the day of the hollows' infiltration. Haha!"

"Maybe if you actually switched on your brain you would've known about your clone trick knucklehead." Karin muttered dryly, while Yuzu set the timer to run down from ten minutes.

"Okay, I'm going to put on the timer now. Get ready you two!" Yuzu advised the boys who quickly locked eyes with each other and sharpened their stances, "On three now! Three, two, one, fight!" Yuzu slammed the timer down, the clock rotating backwards to signify It was counting down from ten minutes.

Wasting no time at all, Naruto formed a clone with a cloud of smoke appearing and dashed toward Ichigo while his clone hung back, "Not one to waste time with a warm up, huh? Okay. I like your style." Ichigo praised the boy coolly.

Naruto lashed out at Ichigo with his kunai knife to which Ichigo countered by knocking his sword against Naruto's weapon, sparks flying between the two weapons altering vastly in size while the ground underneath Naruto's feet crumbled from the strain of struggling not to slide back from Ichigo's strength.

'Damn he's strong! Him and Big Chad are like baa-chan's students, I swear down! Going toe to toe in a battle of strength with this guy won't end with me as the winner, dattebayo!' Naruto realized, his feet sinking further into the ground after Ichigo had collided his bladed Zanpakuto with Naruto's small kunai.

"Heh. That butter knife of yours won't last out against my Zanpakuto!" Ichigo gave him a smirk of confidence while a small crack formed on Naruto's kunai knife. Realizing this, Naruto expertly rolled away from Ichigo, "Already on the retreat eh."

"It's a tactical retreat bitch!" Naruto resorted and Ichigo laughed before lifting up his long leg and booting Naruto in his face, the difference in height being the key reason for why Ichigo's hit was able to connect with Naruto's face. And Ichigo's cocky grin would've widened if Naruto hadn't erupted in a cloud of smoke.

"What?" Ichigo said in shock. His surprise increasing once the smoke disappeared, seemingly taking Naruto with it, "Damn it. Where the hell did he go?" Ichigo looked around, not even spotting Naruto's clone much less Naruto himself.

"That must be Naruto's replacement technique he told us about yesterday after Ichi-nii headed for work." Karin clarified to Rukia and Yuzu who both hummed impressively at Naruto's abilities.

"Naruto's a lot smarter than he appears to be at first glance. He made his clone just in case Ichigo was able to hit him. He must've realized with Ichigo's longer reach the possibility of him connecting a hit on him would've inevitable. So he used his kawarimi no jutsu to switch himself with his clone who immediately dispelled after taking the hit meant for the real Naruto," Rukia summarized while Yuzu shook her head with a pout on her face.

"If only Naru-kun would supply his smarts in school he wouldn't have scored so close to the bottom on the school exam." Yuzu's pout only increased in remembrance of Naruto's overall place on the ranking of students whom scored the highest and lowest on the exam.

Rukia blinked.

"What'd Naruto score?"

"He scored a 33, ranking him at 12."

"The fool."

"Yeah. And he only scored that high because Karin-chan and I made him study."

"And that wasn't exactly a fun time for us ya' know. I had to practically burst his ear-drums out just to get him to sit still enough so he could study," Karin followed up on Yuzu's explanation, making Rukia shake her head.

"I can only imagine how tedious that must've been for you two." Rukia said, making the girls hum while Kon eyed the real Naruto stealthily stalking Ichigo.

"Ooooo! Ichigo better watch out! Naruto's gonna strike him from behind!" Kon told the females, getting them to look over at the fight in time to see Naruto deliver a devastating roundhouse-kick to the side of Ichigo's neck, sending the taller boy sprawling across the ground, "Whoa! Ichigo's not gonna like that one bit!"

As predicted by Kon, Ichigo erupted into a fit of rage at Naruto's dirty tactic, "Bastard!" Ichigo jumped to his feet swinging his Zanpakuto wildly, "Why don't you fight me like a man and not like a coward! Where's your honour, eh?!"

Naruto rested one of his hands on his hip, the other one came up with all of his fingers barring his middle finger folded inward so he could give Ichigo the bird, "Screw you! I never claimed to be a saint or anything! I'm a ninja, got that bub? I don't fight fair, I fight to win, dattebayo!"

Ichigo fumed furiously, making worry appear in Yuzu's eyes, "Oh no, Naru-kun's gone and made onii-chan really angry. I hope onii-chan doesn't try to maim him for it."

"I wouldn't worry about that." Rukia assured her, "That idiot maybe a lot of things, but if there's one thing that sticks out clearly, it's that he's honourable." Karin and Yuzu blinked their eyes and exchanged looks with each other before turning to look at Rukia as the woman held her longish black hair behind her shoulder, "He'll stick to his promise. Trust me on that one."

"Are you sure onii-chan won't try to injure Naru-kun too badly?" Yuzu asked.

"Positive." Rukia smiled only to flinch once the air pressure released from a swing of Ichigo's sword knocked the wind and saliva out of Naruto's system, sending him rolling away, "Not quite sure how many bruises Ichigo will leave on Naruto though. Your guess is as good as mine." The twins nodded with disturbed looks on their faces as their brother raged.

"Argh!" Ichigo released another shock-wave which Naruto flipped over, "Damn you to hell you annoying little cheating cat!"

"That's catchy," Naruto chuckled a little.

Ichigo forced him on the defence with a supreme flying kick aiming for his whisker-marked face. Naruto, in retaliation to Ichigo's attack, decided to do the limbo without bars, showing his flexibility by bending his back and knees down low the moment Ichigo came within range to strike him down.

"Damn I could've sworn that would've hit him." Ichigo growled in frustration. He then received a ruthless car-breaking kick to his back courtesy of Naruto, launching him several feet into the air, "Argh. Not the back."

"Not high enough." Naruto said himself, forming his favourite hand-sign, "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" **Five clones of Naruto appeared in a big cloud of smoke, but only four Naruto-clones leaped high into the sky in pursuit of Ichigo, knocking him further into the air with their kicks which came in quick succession, forcing saliva out of Ichigo's mouth.

"Now's my chance!" Naruto's clone bowed down and cupped its hands together, creating a makeshift platform for its boss to propel himself into the air as if he was jumping off of a trampoline. Naruto's momentum took him above the fearless shinigami where Naruto did a front-flip, and held his right leg to his shoulder, "Now have a taste of my **Uzumaki Rendan (Uzumaki Barrage)!"**

Naruto's heel came crashing thunderously on Ichigo's elbow, the boy's instincts proving too great for Naruto as he was able to shift himself in mid-flight to block Naruto's kick and effectively cancel out his Uzumaki Rendan.

"Sorry, but I don't eat shit." Ichigo jeered, causing a scowl to appear on Naruto's face. There was no time to make a snappy comeback as Ichigo forced Naruto into a game of who could keep parrying each other's slashes the longest without getting tired. Mesmerizingly, sparks were seen lighting up the darkness of the sky as the powerhouse youngsters parried each other's strikes at a ridiculous pace to a seemingly no end contest.

Rukia, Kon, Yuzu, and Karin were in amazement of Naruto's and Ichigo's battle prowess. The sheer magnitude of their fight kept the two afloat in the air, but it was only a matter of time before Ichigo came out the winner of that duel. His massive bladed Zanpakuto was wrecking Naruto's kunai knife to pieces.

Ichigo himself knew sensed this, because he suddenly lowered his guard after parrying Naruto's strike, confusing Naruto who pressed onward with his attack to slam the flat-side of his kunai knife into Ichigo's face. Naruto's pride took a heavy blow to the kidney-area once Ichigo ensnared his now wore down kunai knife in his hand.

"Heh. It'd seem like your toy knife has lost its bite." Ichigo quipped and Naruto gritted his teeth before he felt his face sink in by a heavy object weighing an absolute ton. The object being Ichigo's fist which packed enough power to blast Naruto away to epic proportions, the boy dizzyingly spinning around to the point he was off of the mountain radius, causing Yuzu and Kon to whine.

Ichigo's eyes popped out of his eye-sockets seeing how hard he hit Naruto. He didn't want to kill the boy, just show him whose was boss.

"Oh shit. I hit him too hard. Now he's gonna fell off." Ichigo panicked.

"Naru-kun!" Yuzu shouted in worry for her friend's safety before turning to Rukia with her hands balled up into fists, "Can't you do something to save Naru-kun?"

"I'm afraid not. I still haven't regained any of my power since using it to waken Ichigo's. There's nothing I can do I fear," Rukia told her regretfully, dread quickly filling Yuzu's heart as tears came to her eyes.

"That means Naru-kun's going to…" Yuzu trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence while the floodgates behind her eyes were utterly destroyed allowing the tears to run freely down her cheeks. Karin comforted her sister with a scowl on her face.

"Ichi-nii, you reckless idiot!" Karin muttered while fighting back her own tears. Kon looked at the twins sadly, and then turned to stare at Ichigo.

"Ichigo, you can b-."

"DAMN IT! I DON'T THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME OUT LIKE THAT, BITCH!" Naruto bellowed and Yuzu gasped before Naruto formed his trademark hand-sign, "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" **A barrage of clones were launched at a stunned Ichigo who was simply too shocked by Naruto's clever thinking to get himself out of the jam Ichigo himself had put him in to evade and paid a heavy paid. The clones brutally assaulted Ichigo's stomach with ruthless head-butts one after the other, dispelling upon impact to obscure the blood and saliva coming from Ichigo's mouth with the clouds of smoke.

Naruto made a long chain of clones with each clone holding onto their legs with the original at the pinnacle of the clones. The clones helped fire Naruto back into the fight with Ichigo, dispelling contently after Naruto had smashed Ichigo directly in his right cheek with a spinning kick, forcing him back with blood flowing out of his mouth.

Ichigo's body connected with a big mountain resoundingly, a big hole appearing behind Ichigo who was spread out like a pancake on the mountain.

"Good at least he's okay." Karin said, impressed by Naruto's battle brain.

"Yeah. But Naru-kun didn't have to hit onii-chan so hard. This is meant to be a spar, not an outright war!" Yuzu pouted.

"Meh. All's fair in a street brawl." Karin insisted.

"But that doesn't mean Naru-kun should be trying to break onii-chan and vice versa Karin-chan." Yuzu argued.

"Well I wouldn't worry too much about Ichigo. His body's pretty sturdy; I can see him shaking off a hit like that. And by the looks of it the same can be said for Naruto," Rukia chipped in her two cents on the matter while Ichigo slipped from the mountain and landed on his two feet.

Naruto landed cat-style on the rock-surface of the mountain-side.

"Guess I added too much power in that last punch. Sorry man." Ichigo apologized with a grin on his face. Steadily, his two hands held his sword in front of himself, facing off against Naruto while he could feel a bruise forming on the cheek Naruto had slammed his foot into.

"You kidding? I barely even felt that." Naruto's nose said otherwise since Ichigo could see it leaking blood.

"Whatever you say, fool." Ichigo rolled with the punches, "I don't want these good times to end but I understand all good things must come to an end eventually. Whaddya say we end this party with a bang eh?"

"All good parties end with someone on the floor," Naruto grinned.

"That's the spirit," Ichigo replied coolly, charging toward Naruto, determined to meet him half-way as the little boy took off after him. However, Ichigo froze before he could engage Naruto in combat. The very same malevolent being with its raspy voice from his dream whispered sickeningly in his head.

'What is that? Who's there?' Ichigo asked, not getting time to ponder the voice in his head because Naruto snapped him out of his daydreams with a snap punch to his face, making him scowl, "Damn it! I switched off!" Naruto tried to follow up on his successful kick to Ichigo's face by attempting to roundhouse-kick the boy in his temple, but the satanic voice in Ichigo's head instructed him what to do, and Ichigo followed it instinctually.

Firstly, Ichigo rose his arm up, blocking Naruto's kick. Secondly, he grabbed Naruto's leg which made the boy gnash his teeth. Thirdly, he drove Naruto toward the ground in an attempt to flatten him like a pancake, but Naruto's quick thinking enable him to slam his hands down on the hard surface of the mountain-side and barrel roll himself to safety, using his trapped foot to bring Ichigo forward and send the orange haired shinigami rolling forward in return.

"Damn. He's good! He reversed my reversal!" Ichigo growled while crouching on one knee. Ichigo stood up, his bad-tempered expression firmly on his face. 'So much for this voice's lousy ideas, it didn't do jack shit except save me from eating a kick to my face!' The voice inside of his head snorted at him in return.

Both Ichigo's and Naruto's breathing was a little heavy from the amount of effort they had put into this brawl. But their heavy breathing lasted little more than seconds due to both having high stamina, "I'm ending this now, dattebayo!" Naruto declared, holding his hands up, forming the criss-cross hand-sign.

"What? You're gonna make more clones? Gimme a break already, would ya." Ichigo groused and Naruto huffed.

"You'll see. This isn't just any clone trick. Watch and learn bucko, 'cause Naruto Uzumaki is bringing out the big guns now, **Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Technique)**!" Ichigo lifted up his eyebrow at the name before a huge cloud of smoke obscured the area, making Yuzu scream due to the sheer amount of smoke which erupted from her friend Naruto.

Once the smoke cleared up, Ichigo found himself surrounded by a hundred Naruto-clones, "What the hell? You've gone and made a bunch of yourselves this easy!? What else can ya do with that technique?"

"ATTACK!" The chief of the Naruto-clones answered Ichigo's question with a command which kicked his waiting clones into gear, all of them charging toward Ichigo belligerently, much to his annoyance while the ghostly, gravelly, devilishly voice inside of his head practically screamed, what one would call advice, at him.

"Whoa! It's Neo vs. hundred agents all over again!" Kon referenced the matrix-reloaded excitedly, his jaw hanging wide open.

"So many Naru-kuns," Yuzu murmured in awe of Naruto's ability.

"Oh brother, as if one Naruto wasn't already enough without taking another 99 or so into consideration. I think I'm going to need therapy after this is over," Karin concluded dryly, causing Rukia to giggle a bit beside her.

"**Use your instincts! Use your instincts! Use your instincts! Use your instincts! Use your instincts! Use your instincts! Use your Instincts! Instinct! Instinct! Instinct! Instinct! Instinct! Instinct! Instinct! This is a battle of survival! And only the strongest will survive! Be the most ruthless, whatever it takes to win you must seize on it!"**

'It's schooling me!' Ichigo mused in shock, his eyes wide at the tips the voice gave him. His surprise left him wide open to eat an audible smack in the face by a Naruto-clone's fist, making him growl out in frustration, "You wanna piece of me? Alright! Bring it! I'll take you all on!"

Ichigo swayed his body to the side speedily, a clone's fist brushing past his face by mere inches. Instinctually, he leaned his body forward, expertly evading a clone's attempt to capture his neck and thus end the fight. Battle instincts were a life saver, because Ichigo jumped up without even thinking, dodging five Naruto-clones' efforts to sweep his legs out. While in the air, Ichigo shot his legs out to the sides as if he were doing the splits, impaling the two Naruto-clones which leapt at him from both sides, and was satisfied to see them dispense into smoke.

'So these things dispel after taking a clean hit huh?' Ichigo thought in realization.

Landing on his feet, Ichigo was gangbanged by a ton of Naruto-clones who rushed him like a pack of wolves, forcing the shinigami to take swift evasion by moving his body in all different directions to dodge the clones' relentless onslaught and tussle his shoulders to shrug off the ones which managed to swing off of his shoulders for barely a few seconds before Ichigo threw them off.

A clone flipped over the heads of Naruto's other clones, catching Ichigo by surprise and punching him in his belly, making saliva come out of his mouth. Another clone attempted to put Ichigo in the sleeper-hold, but Ichigo ducked down with his brain on auto mode. Grabbing the clone's legs, the one that hit him, Ichigo rose up, letting the clone rip like a boomerang, taking out it and ten of its comrades.

With his Zanpakuto in his grip, Ichigo began blindingly slashing away in the hopes he could wither down the clones to just a handful. Ichigo's unstoppable swings surprised the clones to the point where a bunch of them ran into his slashes, dispelling and obscuring the other clones' movements unintentionally.

The clones used their brethrens' deaths to their advantage by swiftly getting behind Ichigo, sweeping out his legs, much to his growing frustration, "Damn those dirty rats! Can't they fight fair? Don't they know the meaning of honour, eh?" Apparently not since Ichigo received roughly five immense high kicks to his back, "Arghhhh!" Ichigo let out excruciatingly, as the momentum and power the clones put into their kicks carried him off to the clouds.

Ichigo looked down to the ground to see a Naruto-clone soaring through the air, "Not this trick again." Ichigo managed to straighten himself in the air, placing his sword behind his neck and holding it with his two hands while clone-Naruto flew even higher than him. While clone-Naruto skilfully flipped around to prepare for his Uzumaki Rendan, Ichigo tightened his muscles up.

"**Uzumaki Rendan (Uzumaki Barrage)**!" Ichigo tanked Naruto's heel kick to his shoulder with a surge of pain running through his body, causing him to grit his teeth to keep from yelling out, but at least clone-Naruto hadn't launched him to the ground like a drop-bomb.

'Damn it. He endured my Uzumaki Rendan! What do I have to do to put this guy down for the count?' Clone-Naruto reflected to itself, not knowing how much pain it still inflicted on Ichigo with its heel kick to his shoulder due to Ichigo's expert acting skills to hide his pain from the clone.

Ichigo pivoted in mid-flight to glare at clone-Naruto, getting it to stick its tongue out at him before Ichigo erased its existence from the World of the Living with a slash to the face.

"Tch. These pesky things are nothing more than a nuisance." Ichigo said to himself, looking at the ground and seeing the Naruto-clones waiting for him to land so they could pummel him into submission, "Heh. That's right. Line up single file to receive your very own shock-waves!" Ichigo quipped, slicing the air several times to release several shock-waves at the Naruto-clones.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" The Naruto-clones screamed in surprise, their eyes bulging out of their heads while they scattered away from the falling shock-waves like mice. It was like the battlefield had turned into a minefield the moment Ichigo's shockwaves made contact with the ground, as they ruptured the ground and spewed debris dust everywhere, making the girls watching scream.

Ichigo dropped to his feet amidst the dispensing dust. He rested his huge Zanpakuto on his shoulder, a cocky grin forming across his features, "How did y'all like that huh? No one ever said fireworks couldn't light up the night, right?"

"Clever dick!" A clone shouted at Ichigo, the others nodding their heads in agreement with it before they dashed toward Ichigo once again.

"Heh. If they you think that's clever, then you'll think this tactic's outright ingenious!" Ichigo exclaimed, spinning around rapidly fast until his body became the hurricane-twister it was yesterday, much to his sisters' amazement and the clones' annoyance since they were taken out by the tornado.

The mythical fiery blue phoenix came out of the ground and soared to the sky, roofing it apart.

"Whoa. Unreal. Ichi-nii's packing some serious power in him to make something so overly huge." Karin gaped at the legendary bird-like creature which tore the sky apart and carried on its way to space.

"Naru-kun and onii-chan are really something else." Yuzu hummed in agreement with her twin sister.

"Indeed they are. They are equally matched." Rukia interjected calmly, hope filling her heart watching the two powerhouses go at it like no tomorrow.

Once the tornado vanished, a frustrated Ichigo was left standing in the cratered ground, 'Damn! I've got no control over my phoenix-power! I used up way more reiatsu than I should've used just taking out those small fries.' Ichigo recomposed himself, setting his sights on the only Naruto left. 'At least I got those annoying clones outta the way. So that's a plus in my book.'

"Wow, Ichigo, I must say I didn't think I would enjoy myself in a fight this much." Naruto grinned. At the blond's admittance a smirk crossed Ichigo's face.

"Yeah. I'll admit that you haven't exactly been a walk in the park for me, but where would be the fun if either one of us just walked all over the other one, took his name, and strolled on home to get ready for school?" Ichigo remarked.

Naruto rubbed his nostrils with his index finger, "Back at ya dude. I like a challenge just as much as the next guy does, ya' know."

"Oh I know," Ichigo's smirk turned outright beastly, as he stabbed his sword into the ground, making Naruto flinch at the sudden spontaneous action, "That's why I've decided to knock your block off with my two fists. We don't exactly have long anyway, right little man?"

A smirk grew on Naruto's features, "Oh you wanna take on a ninja in hand to hand combat? Roger that! Let's have at it then."

"I thought you'd never ask." Ichigo replied coolly, releasing a war cry like Naruto as the two bulldozed their way to each other to engage in a battle of fists. Naruto's right arm soared toward Ichigo, right hand balled up into a fist. Ichigo countered with a left hook of his own, making up for his lack of speed with being taller than Naruto, just about managing to connect his fist with Naruto's whiskered-face the moment Naruto turned his face to the side with his own fist.

Yuzu flinched from seeing both Ichigo's and Naruto's faces forcefully turned to the side by each other's attacks. And their onslaughts didn't stop there. Naruto came back with a left hook while Ichigo again did the opposite, aiming for Naruto's other cheek with a right roundhouse-punch.

Simultaneous smacks echoed throughout the air. Naruto and Ichigo used their fists connected to each other's faces to push themselves away from each other and take up fighting stances. Naruto's one was a mixture of styles he had ripped off from watching too many Kung-Fu films, and Ichigo's one was way of karate.

Glaring at each other defiantly, Naruto and Ichigo met in the centre in a flurry of fists which smacked so hard against each other mini shockwaves crumbled the ground and sparks could be seen flaring mightily between the two.

Jumping away from one another, Ichigo and Naruto ran sideways, blue eyes meeting hazel ones before the boys swapped sides with their fists glazing their skins. Spinning around, Naruto bent down and came back up with a rising uppercut aiming for Ichigo's chin. Ichigo, with his tallness, just bent down and raised his legs back up to blast Naruto with an uppercut of his own.

Both of their cheeks were curved in at the same time.

Naruto and Ichigo spun around, launching their fists directly to their faces with immense force, knocking each other back on the balls of their feet.

Both were breathing rather heavy from the duration of this battle.

Naruto, deciding to get dirty, grabbed Ichigo's Zanpakuto, lifting it up with difficulty, 'This shit's heavy!' Naruto thought as he ran toward Ichigo, who looked anything but impressed at such a dirty move.

"No honour," Ichigo said calmly, shaping his hand in the form of an eagle claw, effortlessly catching his Zanpakuto once Naruto got in range to use it on him, leaving the boy sheepish after Ichigo had taken his bladed weapon from him and backhanded him across his face as if he'd become his pops.

Ichigo sheathed his Zanpakuto on his back with his eyes closed because he believed Naruto would at least have the decency to wait until he put his Zanpakuto away before he struck him after stooping to such low levels.

Unfortunately, decency must've not have been in Naruto's vocabulary, because the moment Ichigo sheathed his blade to his back was the moment Naruto hammered his nose in with a devastating flying kick, carrying them backwards from the force Naruto packed into his kick.

"You're really making me wanna kill you." Ichigo threatened darkly while he soared low to the ground with Naruto just above him. The blond didn't reply, but instead raised his feet up, signifying he was going to stomp Ichigo's torso.

"Oh no you don't Shrimp!" Ichigo roared, nullifying the damage Naruto's attack would've done to him by bringing his knees up to his chest, but he was still forced to the ground by Naruto's strength, "What the hell? Why don't you fight me like a real man and not like a coward huh?"

The bangs of Naruto's hair overshadowed his eyes, looking down at Ichigo without replying, "Tch. Don't answer me then! I'll just beat the answer outta ya like how children beat a piñata to smithereens for candy! Eh! How would ya like 'em apples?" Ichigo threw his fist at Naruto, only to be left exasperated once Naruto caught it.

"Shut up!" Naruto yelled, punching the downed Ichigo into his face. While atop of Ichigo, Naruto let loose with a seemingly endless, infinite barrage of fists nailing Ichigo into his face and making the ground crumble from the impact of Ichigo's head bouncing off of the dirt ground. Ichigo, reacting on Instinct, started bombing Naruto into his cheeks as fast as he could. But Naruto was faster, and thus hit Ichigo more than Ichigo hit him. Luckily for Ichigo, he was physically stronger than Naruto; hence his hits packed more power in them in comparison to Naruto's.

Ichigo had quality, but Naruto had the quantity, as the two just kept whaling each other into their cheeks.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

"The fools, they've turned their sparring match into nothing more but a common slug fest." Rukia berated while the sun finally reached the sky, lighting up the sky in a radiant glow, turning the colour of the sky from midnight blue to baby blue. The cuckoos made their morning calls, reminding Yuzu just how long they had been sitting on their knees watching the boys go at it as if this was their last fight.

"I can't watch this anymore. How come the timer hasn't stopped yet? I'm sure it's been more than ten minutes." Yuzu said, looking at the timer, only to see Kon subtly adding more time on the remaining few seconds, "Kaizo-san! You've been keeping this fight going!"

"Wah! Don't blame me! I just wanted to see those two pummel each other's faces in!" Kon defended his actions goofily.

"You should be praying that we don't pummel you, idiot." Karin glared at him, making Kon gulp before Yuzu picked up the timer and switched it off. The noise of a bell echoed loudly throughout the air, halting Ichigo's and Naruto's assaults on one another.

"Time! That's it you two, no more fighting for today. Kaizo-san here kept adding on time to the ten minutes you two agreed to fight for. So you've been fighting for ages without realizing it. Now, chop, chop! School'll be starting in a few hours, and you two haven't eaten or had a shower yet." Yuzu told the boys with a smile on her face.

Naruto and Ichigo looked at each other, realizing the awkward position they were in. They leaped to their feet immediately, dusting themselves off, "That last part…" Ichigo started before shivering slightly, "Yeah… It never happened."

"What never happened?" Naruto asked with a grin on his face as he understood what Ichigo meant. Ichigo looked at the boy, pointing his finger with Naruto doing the same, "Aaaaaaaaaaa! Hahahahahahahaha!" The warriors laughed it off at the same time while the girls and Kon blinked at them.

One minute they were trying to pound each other's heads asunder, and the next minute they laughing off an awkward moment as if it never even happened.

Once the laughter of the two died down, a smirk crossed Ichigo's face while Naruto leisurely folded his arms behind his head, "You've got some dangerous moves and tricks, even if you are dirty while doing them."

Naruto chuckled in a care-free manner, "Yeah! You've actually got a hard punch on ya! The only person too hit me harder than ya has been my grandma!" Ichigo glared at Naruto, raising his fist to strike him down, getting Naruto to quickly wave his hands around in a placating manner, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! I don't mean that as an insult man! My grandma's super tough! I haven't met a woman since that can hit harder than her! I say she could destroy a building with one of her punches!"

"Hmph. Whatever." Ichigo lowered his fist, 'Lying bastard.' Seriously, how the heck could an old lady have that kind of_ immense_ power? What person in the right frame of mind could believe an old lady woman past her best could eradicate a building with a mere punch? No one! That was who!

Shaking off that thought while the girls ventured over to them with Kon following closely behind, Ichigo decided to address another matter, "Hey, you saved my sister Karin, Chad, Rukia, and protected my other sister Yuzu yesterday, right?" Naruto looked up at Ichigo, seeing him calmly watching the girls and Kon come toward them.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Appreciate it."

Naruto allowed a smile to come to his face.

"Like I said before no one's gonna hurt my Yuzu-chan and Karin while I'm around, dattebayo."

"Hm. It's good to know that you'll kee-. Wait? What the hell do you mean your Yuz-?"

"Naru-kun, onii-chan, look at yourselves, you're both bruised almost beyond recognition." Yuzu fretted over the two, making the bruised blond-boy chuckle while the orange-boy glared at the blond one for having the audacity to state his sister belonged to him like they were married.

Cheeky fox.

"Haha! Our bad, Yuzu-chan! I guess we couldn't help ourselves ya' know!" Naruto chortled and Yuzu sighed.

"I should've kept a better eye on the time." Yuzu sent a glare at Kon which made him jump behind Rukia's leg for protection. Yuzu let out another sigh while walking behind Naruto, placing her hands on his back, and easing him off to the edge of the mountain, "Come on you, we've got school today, and you are not missing it for anything. You've got studying to do!"

Naruto whined loudly, "No. Not studying. Anything but that!" Karin bonked Naruto on his head to get him to quit his bellyaching.

"If you actually studied every once in a while then maybe we wouldn't have to make you study now, would we?" Karin asked rhetorically, causing Naruto to sulk as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Fine! I'll do stupid studying!" Naruto muttered grumpily, lighting up once Yuzu wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a good squeeze of appreciation, 'Whoa! Yuzu-chan smells so pretty!' Naruto thought dreamily, a pink tinge enveloping his cheeks.

"Yay! I'll promise you won't regret it. Maybe you can be as smart as onii-chan is if you study extra hard!" Yuzu suggested optimistically, Naruto giggling before he remembered the enjoyable fight he had with Ichigo. He spun around to wave goodbye to the orange haired shinigami.

"Bye Ichigo! Thanks for the fight! We should def-. What?" Naruto asked after stopping his goodbye.

"What?" Ichigo let out being in the same wonder train as Naruto.

"..."

"..."

Both Naruto and Ichigo stared at each other as if they were each a couple of weird experiments.

"What's wrong?" Rukia asked the boys, snapping them out of their stupors.

"Uhm? Oh nothing, I just thought I saw a big fat bee near Ichigo looking to string you Rukia!" Naruto lied professionally, Yuzu and Karin looking at him suspiciously since they know when he was lying having been around the boy for months now.

Then their suspicious glances switched to Ichigo since they definitely knew when he was lying.

"And what's your excuse Ichi-nii for zoning out?" Karin asked with a bored look on her face, making Naruto and Ichigo pale.

"I… t-thought that bruise on Naruto's face looked kinda bad. Guess I felt sorta sorry for the guy." Ichigo bullshitted his way out of that jam sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head in the same manner, "Turns out he's okay, though."

"Hell yeah I am!" Naruto agreed excitedly, his nerves getting the better of him as Yuzu and Karin checked him out while Rukia did the same to Ichigo, all three ladies thinking that the boys had used their advance ninja and shinigami-powers to see something in each other that they didn't.

"K. Well we've got to get to school in a bit. So let's go so we all can get ready." Yuzu finally dropped the matter, making Ichigo and Naruto sigh in relief.

'Weird. Ichigo's bruises were already healing? But wouldn't that mean he has a biju chimed inside of him to give him regeneration powers like myself,' Naruto thought in confusion, a frown on his face while Yuzu looked at Kon.

"Come on Kaizo-san, time to head home now!" Yuzu chirped brightly, holding out her arms to Kon who fiercely shook his head.

"Wah! No! I wanna stay with nee-chan!" Kon stated, running toward Rukia who remorselessly booted Kon into Yuzu's arms, "Oh nee-chan, you're hits feel as wonderful as ever! Please lemme stay with you nee-chan! Or at least lemme feel your boobs! I need my fix!"

"Thanks Rukia!" Yuzu chirped.

"No problem Yuzu." Rukia said nonchalantly.

Yuzu looked at Naruto whilst the sulking Kon stayed in her arms, "You can take us back to Karakura Town now, Naru-kun."

"Alrighty!" Naruto chirped, picking up Yuzu bridal style in his arms, and then bending his knees, "Hop on Karin!"

"Hey! Don't be getting intimate with my sisters, ya hear me brat!" Ichigo interjected demandingly, Karin nonchalantly swinging her arms around Naruto's neck and locking her legs on his hips. Naruto turned around and stuck his tongue out at Ichigo, "You cheeky son of of a-." Naruto disappeared, taking Kon, Yuzu and Karin with him.

"Argh. This was time-consuming." Ichigo said, rubbing his neck tiredly, a small grin coming to his lips, "But enjoyable."

"You can say that again." Rukia said calmly, looking at Ichigo's face.

"What? What are ya looking at already?" Ichigo demanded. "Is there something on my face? I'm hardly that good-looking ya' know!"

"Wasn't implying that you were, Ichigo," Rukia countered, blushing at Ichigo's accusation, "I've actually noticed that your bruises have already started healing."

"What?"

"Yes. Take a good look in the mirror when you get home if you don't believe me." Rukia confirmed.

Ichigo turned away from her, looking at his hands shockingly, 'What in the bloody hell is happening to me? Firstly, I hear that damned creepy ass voice in my dreams! Secondly, I hear it while I'm awake! And thirdly, this regeneration crap! I should've been bruised for a good couple of days, but according to the midget I'm already starting to heal… how?!'

This was initially the reason why he was looking at Naruto's face because he found it weird that the boy had regeneration powers, but it turned out he had the same ability as Naruto. Was that why Naruto was looking at him like that before he disappeared carrying Yuzu, Karin, and Kon?

Ichigo grumpily marched forward while growling out loud to himself, "Where the hell do you think you're going idiot?" Rukia asked belligerently.

"Home! Where else would I go, woman?"

"Oh and you were just going to leave me stranded here by myself?" Rukia asked.

"No damn it, but you were taking long!"

"Maybe if you actually had the politeness to inform me that we were leaving now, I wouldn't have stalled as you say, dummy!"

"Argh! I should just leave ya ass here!"

"Oh well that would work out so well for you. Wait until I tell your school how you left poor, defenceless little me out in the open to defend for my damn-self to sate your needs!"

"Argh! Grasser!"

"Selfish jerk!"

"Annoying midget!"

"Insensitive bean pole!"

"Nosy hag!"

"Stupid skyscraper!"

And so, as Ichigo and Rukia quarrelled back and forth, each time coming up with new names to call one another, the two were obliviously unaware of the surveillance eagle-eye up in the sky, more focused on out-doing the other one then worrying if anyone was keeping a close eagle-like eye on them.

XxX

(Elsewhere)

In a company-like room were several disembodied, bloody corpses of many men and women dressed distinctively in black shihakushos with white haoris thrown their shihakushos. Standing in the centre of the many rows of seats tucked into the red round desks were two men. The desks themselves were completely round like a circle, and there were a good few of them.

From a bird eye view, the round desks resembled that of an eyeball.

The two men were looking up at a hologram screen displaying the arguing Rukia and Ichigo.

"Well now, it would appear the little egg my little ducking planted ages ago in that woman is starting to hatch after being passed on to that boy," A bespectacled man said. He had long shoulder-length brown wavy hair, a couple of bangs framing his face. His skin was light and a relaxed smile was on his face. He wore the shinigami-robes with a white haori on, only his one had a symbol for captain placed on the back like the man next to him. A pair of wooden sandals and a Zanpakuto sheathed to his side completed his appearance.

"Oh dear, whatever shall we do?" The man asked with a perpetual grin on his face. His eyes were also perpetually closed; his skin was pale like he hadn't seen the sun for days, and his long straightened blue hair fell to his shoulders. His attire consisted of the same one the brown haired man was wearing. The typical shinigami uniform all shinigami wore.

Only these two had on the additional white haoris all thirteen captains of the Gotei 13 wore.

"Isn't it obvious, captain-Ichimaru? We watch and enjoy the show. Either today or tomorrow, Abarai-kun and captain Kuchiki will head to the World of the Living to apprehend Rukia-chan due to their personal attachments to her. They will come back with their tails between their legs," The brown haired man stated slowly, but calmly, sounding like he had looked into the future.

"Oh. I do love a good fight sir, but aren't you overestimating those two boys. They are inexperienced after all." Gin Ichimaru, captain of the third squad, said with his forever-lasting grin on his features, "Overconfidence can be a hindrance, so they say."

"When one has a front row ticket to the cinema, one has all the opportunities to study the nurturing pups," The brown haired man replied cryptically, "Those two, hold beings with power far beyond human and shinigami comprehension. I believe, once they're pushed to their limits, Abarai-kun and captain Kuchiki won't stand a chance against them."

"The Kurosaki-boy's dormant power is very impressive I'll admit captain Aizen-sama, but I fear I can't feel anything in the Uzumaki-boy," Gin admitted to the captain of the fifth division Sosuke Aizen.

"That's because I surmised he has a fox-creature with power so great it's in a dimension all on its own… a third dimension." Gin's eternally closed eyes actually opened up to display his shock at hearing that. Something that powerful that it could not be sensed by others was almost unheard of in the Soul Society, "I know, shocking right." Aizen continued as if he hadn't said anything surprising at all.

Gin nodded his head simply, his smile returning and his eyes closing as if someone was struggling to hold them the way they were so he could looked surprised.

"Oh my, your vast knowledge of all things knowing succeeds you to no limits, Aizen-sama." Gin complimented.

"Oh but of course, captain Ichimaru." Aizen agreed, "With the technique I possess, there really isn't anything I don't know, and if I don't know, I'll find out. See, it's really quite simple when you think about it. Uzumaki-kun and Kurosaki-kun will keep Rukia-chan safe with their partners playing a vital role."

"Oh. It becomes exceedingly difficult to pull out that gem our old friend put inside Rukia's gigai." Gin interjected.

"I have pieces already on the move for when that happens, captain Ichimaru." Aizen assured and Gin's grin appeared to widen if that was even possible. "Captain Kuchiki and Abarai-kun will lose, Rukia-chan will stay in the human world and her reiatsu will wither away into nothing, turning her into a human, I will get what's mine, and my plans for world's domination will be set in motion. The plan's flawless."

"Oh goody, and I'll have a front row seat to watch this all go down." Gin stated.

Aizen's calm smile would not disappear.

"Yes. You'll see my rise to the throne slowly, but surely, because I truly am unstoppable. And soon I'll have untouchability to go with it all."

Shit just got real.

* * *

**You decide who won that fight. **

**Yep, Ichigo's getting modelled after the prince of all saiyans slowly, but surely, because Vegeta's a badass. Putting Vegeta's badass attitude with Ichigo's cool attitude makes for a great character. Or at the very least it stops a negative flaw from showing its ugly head. *cough whining.* *cough, lose a fight, whine, and come back cocky*. **

**Sorry about that.**


End file.
